Solve College Algebra Problems

These equations will have multiple variables in them and we will be asked to solve the equation for one of the variables.This is something that we will be asked to do on a fairly regular basis.The ability to solve equations and inequalities is vital to surviving this class and many of the later math classes you might take.

We review exponents (integer and rational), radicals, polynomials, factoring polynomials, rational expressions and complex numbers.

Integer Exponents – In this section we will start looking at exponents.

We will also discuss how to evaluate numbers raised to a rational exponent.

Radicals – In this section we will define radical notation and relate radicals to rational exponents.

Factoring Polynomials – In this section we look at factoring polynomials a topic that will appear in pretty much every chapter in this course and so is vital that you understand it.

We will discuss factoring out the greatest common factor, factoring by grouping, factoring quadratics and factoring polynomials with degree greater than 2.Here is a listing of sections for which practice problems have been written as well as a brief description of the material covered in the notes for that particular section.Preliminaries - In this chapter we will do a quick review of some topics that are absolutely essential to being successful in an Algebra class.Quadratic Equations, Part I – In this section we will start looking at solving quadratic equations.Specifically, we will look at factoring and the square root property in this section.Quadratic Equations, Part II – In this section we will continue solving quadratic equations.We will use completing the square to solve quadratic equations in this section and use that to derive the quadratic formula.Note that some sections will have more problems than others and some will have more or less of a variety of problems.Most sections should have a range of difficulty levels in the problems although this will vary from section to section.In addition, we discuss a subtlety involved in solving equations that students often overlook.Applications of Linear Equations – In this section we discuss a process for solving applications in general although we will focus only on linear equations here.