Problema Solution

The difference of a whole number and its reciprocal is 63/8. What is the number?

Answer provided by our tutors

Let 'x' represent the whole number.

The reciprocal of x is 1/x.

x - (1/x) = 63/8

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click here to see the equation solved for x

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x = 8

We need to ignore the solution -0.125 since it is not a whole number.

Indeed

8 - 1/8 = (8*8 - 1)/8 = 63/8

The number is 8.