Hi, thanks for your workings. I wasn't taught to set this equation to '0'. Only been taught to solve by finding a common factor for the denominator. Is this supposed to be a quadratic equation in this case? If so, then we should set the equation to '0' before solving? What is the purpose of multiplying both sides by x^2 (x-2)^2 (3x+1)^2.

Thanks for your help :)

When asked to ‘Solve’ an equation, you should try to make sure one side is equal to 0 so that it is easier to manipulate and find x. You can also choose not to set the equation to 0.

Another way is to first combine the left hand side into a single fraction (by cross multiplying) by finding a common denominator. Then cross multiply again so that the denominator of the left hand side is the same as the right hand side denominator.

The purpose of multiplying both sides by the denominator squared is because they are also the answers. If you just multiply across and get 9-9x = 0, you will only have 1 answer, when you should be getting more than 1 answer. Hope this helps :)

Thanks for clarifying my doubts.

Thanks for your help :)