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jmc

algebra senior

Problem

What are all values of such that for every , we have Express your answer in interval notation in decimal form.
Solution
First we'll simplify that complicated expression. We attempt to factor the numerator of the left side: Substituting this in for the numerator in our inequality gives We note that left hand side has in both the numerator and denominator. We can only cancel these terms if Since we're looking for values of such that the inequality is true for all we need so that

Also because this must be true for every , we can cancel the 's on both sides. This gives Now we must solve this quadratic inequality. We can factor the quadratic as . The roots are and . Since a graph of this parabola would open upwards, we know that the value of is negative between the roots, so the solution to our inequality is But we still need so in interval notation the answer is .
Final answer
[0,3)