A monk was instructed by his teacher to meditate for exactly forty-five minutes. But the monk didn't have a watch or a clock to use to time himself. At realizing the monk's problem, his instructor handed the monk two incense sticks that each take exactly one hour to burn. The incense sticks however are not identical, and they each burn at a non-uniform rate, since after all they are hand-made. Using these incense sticks and some matches, how can the monk arrange for exactly forty-five minutes of meditation?

Evaluate 8x2 + 9x − 1 2x3 + 3x2 − 2x dx. solution since the degree of the numerator is less than the degree of the denominator, we don't need to divide. we factor the denominator as 2x3 + 3x2 − 2x = x(2x2 + 3x − 2) = x(2x − 1)(x + 2). since the denominator has three distinct linear factors, the partial fraction decomposition of the integrand has the form† 8x2 + 9x − 1 x(2x − 1)(x + 2) = correct: your answer is correct. to determine the values of a, b, and c, we multiply both sides of this equation by the product of the denominators, x(2x − 1)(x + 2), obtaining 8x2 + 9x − 1 = a correct: your answer is correct. (x + 2) + bx(x + 2) + cx(2x − 1).