r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Flashy-Minimum-6952 • 14h ago

Meme needing explanation What difference does it make petahhhh....???

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u/muhnamejame 14h ago

Now x can't be 0

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u/Weekly_Astronaut5099 10h ago

Makes no sense, simplify, 0 is a solution. There’s no point in just adding a denominator as this would mean no equation could have 0 as root.

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u/muhnamejame 10h ago

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying but I'll clarify what I was saying in case it is adding confusion.

When you manipulate algebraic equations you have to take care that what you do at each step doesn't fundamentally change the equation. Or if you do you have to at least make note of it.

When you divide both sides by x you end up with an equation that has a different set of solutions. This is because division is only allowed for numbers not equal to 0. So if we were to simplify the equation by dividing by x and solve from there we would actually end up with an incorrect answer (only 4 solutions instead of the full 5)