Lesson 20

In previous lessons, students studied rational functions. They made sense of graphs in context, learned about asymptotes, and rewrote expressions to reveal end behavior. The goal of this lesson is for students to write rational equations to model simple situations, such as average cost and batting averages, and then use their equations to answer questions and interpret the meaning of their answer in context (MP2) while making use of the structure of rational equations (MP7).

This is the first of three lessons on solving rational equations. In this lesson, students write and solve equations involving a rational expression that is equal to a rational number. As the lessons progress, students will solve increasingly challenging rational equations, with the third lesson focusing on understanding how extraneous solutions may arise.

Technology isn’t required for this lesson, but there are opportunities for students to choose to use appropriate technology to solve problems. We recommend making technology available.