GMAT Prep: PS (Factoring)

Question

I'm having trouble with this one, please help.

gmatornot · Answer

This question is wrong...

It should be 2^(x+y)^2/2^(x-y)^2

which will give you 2^4xy = 2^4 = 16

agsfaltex · Answer

Thanks gmatornot.

I was going nuts tryin to figure this one out. When I took the GMATprep and this question showed up I wasted 10 minutes before I gave up and guessed. Then I went back and tried to work it out again, still kept hitting a dead end.

jamesrwright3 · Answer

I did it the long way...
I multiplied both out and got

2x^2+4xy+2y^2
--------------------
2x^2-4xy+2y^2


When you divide out, you get

4xy
------
-4xy

I know the answer is 16. When I bring the 4xy on the bottom up to the top why doesn't it equal 16?

rdw28 · Answer

I am not sure how you got 2x^2 and 2y^2, but regardless, once you have that, and since this is an exponent, you will subtract the denominator from the numerator:

x^2 + 2xy + 2y^2 - x^2 + 2xy - y^2

=4xy= 4

2^4

jamesrwright3 · Answer

Am I not allowed to divide the like terms on the top and bottom?

jamesrwright3 · Answer

I got it by simply squaring the x-y and the x+y on the tops and bottom and then multiplying the result by 2

ps_dahiya · Answer

Not by splitting them.....
(2a+b)/(a+b) can be handled as
(a+a+b)/(a+b) =   +1 but you can not divide just a by a and by by b.

In summary you can split numerator but can't split denominator.

GMAT Prep: PS (Factoring)

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