Math Memes

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Memes related to mathematics.

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Simplify (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

“simplify” literally means to make the equation easier to understand

Nope. It means to present it in the simplest way possible. e.g. 5/10=1/2.

You are arguing that “expand and simplify” is the exact same thing as “simplify”

No I'm not. I'm saying "expand and simplify" is a thing in all high school Maths textbooks, "factor and simplify" isn't a thing in any of them.

"Sometimes factoring is prudent" - if you're trying to solve an equation, yes, but solving and simplifying aren't the same thing. If I arrive at an answer of 5/10 then I have solved but not simplified. Sometimes it's not even possible to simplify, because the answer is already in the simplest form possible, such as an answer of 1/2. I teach students when to recognise when something can be simplified and when it can't. Your original contention was that the Term was already simplified, and it wasn't.

"And thanks for the downvotes." - I downvote anything that is incorrect, just like a student would lose marks for same.

[–] the_tab_key 1 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

So then you wouldn't use factoring to simplify the math I gave you?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'd use it to solve it, as per my previous comment on the difference between solving and simplifying.

[–] the_tab_key 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

By your words: you solve an equation. What I gave you to simplify was an algebraic fraction. As a teacher you should have realized that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Nope. You gave me something to solve, as I already said. If I have x²-x and want to solve it, I use x(x-1) to find the roots - that isn't simplifying, that's solving.