sandy wrote:
If \(x \neq -y\), then \(\frac{x^2 + 2xy + y^2}{2(x+y)^2}=\)
(A) \(1\)
(B) \(\frac{1}{2}\)
(C)\(\frac{1}{x+y}\)
(D) \(xy\)
(E) \(2xy\)
APPROACH #1: Factoring
Given: \(\frac{x^2 + 2xy + y^2}{2(x+y)^2}\)
Factor the numerator to get: \(\frac{(x+y)(x+y)}{2(x+y)^2}\)
In other words: \(\frac{(x+y)^2}{2(x+y)^2}\)
Divide numerator and denominator by \((x+y)^2\) to get: \(\frac{1}{2}\)
Answer: B
APPROACH #2: Plug-in values
If \(x = 0\) and \(y = 1\), we get: \(\frac{x^2 + 2xy + y^2}{2(x+y)^2}=\frac{0^2 + 2(0)(1) + 1^2}{2(0+1)^2}=\frac{1}{2}\)
From here we need to test answer choices C, D and E since there are variables in those answer choices.
So we'll plug in \(x = 0\) and \(y = 1\) to see if any of them also evaluate to be \(\frac{1}{2}\)
(C)\(\frac{1}{x+y}=\frac{1}{0+1}=1\). No good
(D) \(xy=(0)(1)=0\). No good
(E) \(2xy=2(0)(1)=0\). No good
Answer: B