FINDING PARTIAL FRACTION DECOMPOSITIONS

Your textbook fails to mention a fairly basic trick for making most partial fraction decomposition problems relatively painless. I went over this in class, and I
review it here just in case you missed that day or lost your notes.
First suppose we have a proper fraction P (x)/Q(x), such that the polynomial
Q(x) splits into linear, distinct factors. We demonstrate an easy method for finding
the partial fraction decomposition by example:
Example: Take the fraction
position looks like

x2 +2
(x1)(x2)(x3)(x4) .

The partial fraction decom-

A
B
C
D
x2 + 2
=
+
+
+
.
(x 1)(x 2)(x 3)(x 4)
x1 x2 x3 x4
To find A, for example, multiply both sides by x 1:
x2 + 2
x1
x1
x1
= A+B
+C
+D
.
(x 2)(x 3)(x 4)
x2
x3
x4
Now notice what happens if we plug in x = 1: all the terms on the left except A
are killed off; so we conclude that


x2 + 2
1

A=
= .

(x 2)(x 3)(x 4) x=1
2
Similarly,


x2 + 2

B=
= 3.
(x 1)(x 3)(x 4) x=2
C and D can similarly found by a 1-line computation.
What if we had repeated factors? We can still avoid writing down systems of
equations, but we have to take derivatives to do it. Heres an example:
Example: Lets take

x
.
(x1)2 (x2)

We have the partial fraction decomposition

x
A
B
C
=
+
+
.
2
(x 1) (x 2)
x 2 x 1 (x 1)2
We can get A and C using the trick above, multiplying the expression above by
x 2 and (x 1)2 , respectively, to isolate A and C. Now look at the expression
above when weve multiplied by (x 1)2 :
x
(x 1)2
=A
+ B(x 1) + C.
x2
x2
Now take derivatives of both sides. We get
x2x
2(x 1)(x 2) (x 1)2
=
A
+ B.
(x 2)2
(x 2)2
1

FINDING PARTIAL FRACTION DECOMPOSITIONS

Again if we plug in x = 1, the term multiplying A disappears, so weve successfully

isolated B.
To recap: we can use a trick to find the partial fraction decomposition of
P (x)/Q(x), provided Q(x) factors into linear factors. If the factors of Q(x) are
A
distinct, we get the coefficient of xa
by multiplying both sides by x ai , and
i
then plugging in x = ai . If we have some repeated factors, we get the coefficient
A
of the highest power (x ai )n dividing Q(x) by the method above, and
(xai )n
then repeatedly take derivatives to get the rest.
This was a very quick review of what we did. If you are unsure of how the
method works, send me an e-mail or stop by during office hours.