Chapter 3 Rational Functions

We now turn our attention to rational expressions – that is, algebraic fractions – and equations which contain them. In this chapter, we will need to pay more attention to the domain of our functions than we have up to this point. The functions in Chapters 1 and 2 have a domain of all real numbers. Rational functions include denominators that make the function undefined when they equal zero. The reader is encouraged to keep in mind the properties of fractions listed in Section 0.1,  because we will need them along the way.