Let f(x) = (7x+9)/(x-5). Solve the equation f(y) =x for y. What is this even asking?The solution should be in integers and the coefficient of x in the numerator is positive. The fraction should be reduced

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You have a definition for f(x)   f(x) = (7x+9)/(x-5)  So to find f(y), you put "y" everywhere you see "x" in f(x)   f(y) = (7y+9)/(y-5)  You are asked to equate this to x and solve for y   f(y) = x   (7y+9)/(y-5) = x   7y + 9 + x(y - 5)    (multiply by y-5)   7y + 9 = xy - 5x    (eliminate the parentheses using the distributive property) From here, we will put all term containing y on one side of the equal sign, and all terms not containing y on the other side.   7y + 9 + 5x = xy    (add 5x)   9 + 5x = xy - 7y    (subtract 7y)   9 + 5x = y(x - 7)    (factor right side)   (9+5x)/(x-7) = y    (divide by the y coefficient)
The desired solution is  y = (5x+9)/(x-7)
This process finds the inverse function of the function f(x). The inverse of f(x) is denoted by f -1(x). It tells the value of x required to make f(x) be something in particular. Example   Suppose we want to find the value of x that will make f(x) = -4. We can use our inverse function f -1(x) = (5x+9)/(x-7) to find it.   F -1(-4) = (5(-4)+9)/((-4)-7)   = (-20+9)/(-11)   = -11/-11   = 1 We can verify this to be what we were looking for by evaluating f(1)   f(1) = (7(1)+9)/((1)-5)   = (7+9)/(-4)   = 16/-4   = -4 We wanted to find the value of x that would make f(x) = -4. Using our inverse function, we found x=1 would do it, and we verified that f(1) = -4.

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