MAT - Paper 2013 - Q1F
Flashcards
What should you do when reading a MAT question?
Circle any constaints like positive, whole, negative.
“Three positive numbers $a$, $b$, $c$ satisfy…” What should you do here?
Circle the word “positive”.
When given a question about the potential solutions (e.g. there is one solution, there is two solutions, there are infinitely many solutions) to a system of equations, what should you do?
Try and solve it and see what issues come up.
\[b^4 - b^3 = 8\]
If you can’t factorise $b^4 - b^3 - 8$, what could you still do instead that might be useful?
\[b^3(b - 1) = 8\]
If $b$ has to be positive, what is one solution to
\[b^3(b - 1) = 8\]
?
\[b = 2\]
When you have an equation like
\[b^2 = a\]
in a system of equations, how can you rewrite it so that inferences are easier?
\[a = b^2\]