3/2/23, 7:32 AM Reciprocal In Algebra

Reciprocal In Algebra
Turn it upside down!

Reciprocal of a Number
To get the reciprocal of a number, we divide 1 by the number:

8 18
Number Its Reciprocal

Examples:

Number Reciprocal As a Decimal

1/
2 2 = 0.5

1/
8 8 = 0.125

1/
1,000 1,000 = 0.001

Reciprocal of a Variable
Likewise, the reciprocal of a variable "x" is "1/x".

And the reciprocal of something more complicated like "x/y" is "y/x".

In other words turn it upside down.

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Example: What is the Reciprocal of x/(x−1) ?

 x   (x−1) 
Answer: take and flip it upside down:
 (x−1)   x 

x (x−1)

A Fraction

More Examples:

Expression Reciprocal

 1 
2x
 2x 

 3   x 
 x   3 

 (2x−3)   (x+5) 
 (x+5)   (2x−3) 

Flipping a Flip
When we take the reciprocal of a reciprocal we end up back where we started!

ax
y
Reciprocal Reciprocal
y
ax
Example:

 ax   y 
The reciprocal of is
 y   ax 
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3/2/23, 7:32 AM Reciprocal In Algebra

 y   ax 
The reciprocal of is (back again)
 ax   y 

Example: What is:

 1 
 1/w 

Answer: w

Why? because the reciprocal of 1/w is w/1 which is just w

 1 
Or with numbers: What is ? Divide 1 into halves, and the answer is 2
 ½ 

Notation
The reciprocal of "x" can be shown as:

 1 
 x 
or x−1 (see exponents)

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10  

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