Algebra help?

[goddessdeath]

Uh, does anyone know how the hell to do this crap? I will try to get it to come out right on here:

3    
-
    8    
-
    9    
  =

2x2y

5x

10xy
  Sorry, it's a little off and there should be an equal sign showing up, but I cannot grasp how to find the Lowest Common Multiple in that shit. If anyone has a clue, HELP! I do

Comments

[wickedmommy]

MATH!!!!!*screams and runs away in terror*

[goddessdeath]

Yes, exactly!

[rinn]

I'm going to email it to Frank at work. I'll see if he can explain it :)

[goddessdeath]

Sweet. I hope the formatting comes out right. I had to create an HTML table for that - haha. There's no easy way, apparently, to type out algebraic equations. I'm just not comprehending this section for some reason.

[rinn]

Frank responded with this:

is she solving for x or y? or just trying to find the LCM?

[goddessdeath]

Sorry, not solving for x/y - Basically it's fraction subtraction. We have to find the stupid LCM then subtract it down like a fraction.

If it looked like this (and hopefully this comes out right cuz I'm not making a table, haha), this is how it would be solved (pretend the slash is the fraction part):

13a/xyz - 4a/xyz - 2a/xyz

then the answer would be 7a/xyz

That sort of thing, but since the example I just gave already had the same denominator, then I could just solve it. I dunno! o_0

[goddessdeath]

Actually, it is 15-16xy-9x / 10x^2y or however it would be written to explain that x is to the second power, which is probably what you meant to type anyway, but yeah...I can get the answer from the book, but I need to know how to get there because problems like these will be on the test and if I can't do them, then I'm screwed.

Thanks...