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jmc

algebra intermediate

Problem

Let . Find the largest which is not in the domain of .
Solution
There are two ways for to not be in the domain of : it can not be in the domain of , or it can be in the domain of but not in the domain of . In the first case, the denominator of is zero, so



For the second case, we see that the denominator of is . If this is zero, we have



This is greater than . So the largest not in the domain of is .
Final answer
\frac{27}{10}