18.5k views
4 votes
Expand ( x - 1/x^2)^4

User Tdurnford
by
7.4k points

1 Answer

2 votes

Answer:

We want to expand the expression:


(x - (1)/(x^2) )^4

We can just do it by brute force, this is:

First, rewrite our expression as the product of two square factors:


(x - (1)/(x^2) )^4 = (x - (1)/(x^2) )^2*(x - (1)/(x^2) )^2

Now we can expand each one these two factors:


(x - (1)/(x^2) )^2 = (x - (1)/(x^2) )*(x - (1)/(x^2) ) = x^2 + (1)/(x^4) -2*x*(1)/(x^2)

That can be simplified to


x^2 - (2)/(x) + (1)/(x^4)

Now we can replace that in our original expression to get:


(x^2 - (2)/(x) + (1)/(x^4))*(x^2 - (2)/(x) + (1)/(x^4))

Now we can expand that last product, to get:


(x^2)^2 + 2*(x^2)*(-(2)/(x) ) + 2*(x^2)*((1)/(x^4)) + 2*((-2)/(x))*((1)/(x^4)) + ((-2)/(x) )^2 + ((1)/(x^4))^2

We can simplify that to:


x^4 - 4x + 2x^2 - (4)/(x^5) + (4)/(x^2) + (1)/(x^8)

That is the expanded expression.

User Sinstein
by
8.5k points

No related questions found

Welcome to QAmmunity.org, where you can ask questions and receive answers from other members of our community.

9.4m questions

12.2m answers

Categories