3
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I have no idea how to solve this. Could anyone give a hand? Thanks!

$$2x^{5a} + 6x^{3a} - x^{2a} - 3 = 0$$

PS: I'm guessing this doesn't make sense unless it's also "solve for x" and the equation is = 0, but I'm not certain of that.

PPS: My intuition was to add 3 to both sides, then multiply both sides by x, then divide by 3, but I didn't know where to go from there (or even if that was right).


Edit: To be clear, I'm not the 8th grader. I'm simply unable to help her, and would appreciate assistance. You can view my web dev profile at stackoverflow if you need proof: https://stackoverflow.com/users/174621/matrym

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    I imagine the instructions were something besides "solve." Were they something like "simply this expression." Did they give you a value for a?2011-01-20
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    Without context (for example, what do the directions say?) it is very hard to interpret what question was intended.2011-01-20
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    @Michael: I've relayed all of the information that I have. Is it insufficient? I interpreted the question to be "solve for x"...2011-01-20
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    @Matrym: The information you gave is insufficient. For e.g. is it $2x^{5a} + \dots$ or is it $2ax^5 + \dots$? Also I suppose the question is about finding the roots (setting =0 and finding the values of x), but that is not clear.2011-01-20
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    @Moron, @Michael, @Isaac: Thanks for that. The instruction was to "Factor". Perhaps the equation got lost in translation, or the teacher made a mistake.2011-01-20
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    @Matrym: One cannot "solve" an expression; one usually solves an *equation*, and an equation requires an "equal" sign somewhere. If the instructions were to "factor", it was unclear; factor into *what*? But the most likely meaning is they want it to be factored into the terms that are linear in $x^a$.2011-01-20

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