Recent content by mathdroid

My younger daughter graduated from high school when she was 17. She always did as well academically, but didn't have the faintest flicker of a clue about what to do with her life at that point. We insisted that she take some classes at a local junior college, and for the next five years, she...

You just have to be methodical. The factors of 6 are either 1 and 6 or 2 and 3. Those for 35 are either 5 and 7 or 1 and 35. The third term is negative, and is the product of the two second terms of the original binomials, which means that one of the second terms is positive and one is negative...

Hi, I'm a retired technical sales engineer and manager who has been teaching math and physics as a second career for the last eight years. It's been great! I read news and science sites on my lap top daily, and look at this site at least every two days.

It always helps to properly define your variables. Let b = the time it takes Bill to paint the fence alone. Let t = the time it takes Tom to paint the fence alone. So you need two equations. Since it takes Bill 12 hours less than Tom when both work alone: b = t - 12 I believe that if both of...