Lesson 1

Retrieve your work from Try This 1. In that activity you picked a number and applied a series of mathematical operations to the number. You should have obtained the following rational expression to describe the result:
 

You may have noticed that the result is always 2 less than the original number. For example, if you started with the number 19, your final result was 17. You may have also determined that there was one number that does not follow this pattern.

Share 1

Confirm that x = −2 does not yield the same result as any other value of x. With a partner, discuss why x = −2 does not follow the same pattern.

If required, save a record of your discussion in your course folder.