Question

How do you find (gh)(a) given g(a)=−3a2−a and h(a)=−2a−4?

Answer 1

We can remove the negatives by multiplying the result by the appropriate form of

1

:

(

g

h

)

(

a

)

=

−

1

−

1

×

−

3

a

2

−

a

−

2

a

−

4

(

g

h

)

(

a

)

=

−

1

(

−

3

a

2

−

a

)

−

1

(

−

2

a

−

4

)

(

g

h

)

(

a

)

=

3

a

2

+

a

2

a

+

4

If necessary, we can factor the numerator and denominator as:

(

g

h

)

(

a

)

=

a

(

3

a

+

1

)

2

(

a

+

2

)