Numbers fall into several broad categories: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and even complex numbers. How many of these
categories are you familiar with? Why is it important to have categories of
numbers and to know which categories you are dealing with in a given
expression?
One category that is important to understand is rational numbers. A rational
number is a number that can be expressed as an integer divided by another
integer. In this unit you will encounter rational expressions, which are a form of
polynomial. Knowing what the definition of rational numbers is, what form do you
expect rational expressions to take?

Given: ad¯¯¯¯¯ is an altitude. prove: ab2+ac2=cb2 right triangle a b c with right angle a. point d lies on side b c and segment a d is drawn. angle a d c is a right angle. drag and drop a reason into each box to correctly complete the two-column proof. statement reason ad¯¯¯¯¯ is an altitude, and ∠bac is a right angle. given ∠adb and ∠adc are right angles. definition of altitude ∠bac≅∠bda ? ∠bac≅∠adc ? ∠b≅∠b ? ∠c≅∠c reflexive property of congruence △abc∼△dba ? △abc∼△dac aa similarity postulate abbd=cbab ? ab2=(cb)(bd) cross multiply and simplify. acdc=cbac polygon similarity postulate ac2=(cb)(dc) cross multiply and simplify. ab2+ac2=ab2+(cb)(dc) addition property of equality ab2+ac2=(cb)(bd)+(cb)(dc) substitution property of equality ab2+ac2=(cb)(bd+dc) ? bd+dc=cb segment addition postulate ab2+ac2=cb2 substitution property of equality