Simplify 1/x-1/(x^2)

$\frac{1}{x} - \frac{1}{x^{2}}$

Step 1

To write $\frac{1}{x}$ as a fraction with a common denominator, multiply by $\frac{x}{x}$ .

$\frac{1}{x} \cdot \frac{x}{x} - \frac{1}{x^{2}}$

Step 2

Write each expression with a common denominator of $x^{2}$ , by multiplying each by an appropriate factor of $1$ .

Multiply $\frac{1}{x}$ by $\frac{x}{x}$ .

$\frac{x}{x \cdot x} - \frac{1}{x^{2}}$

Multiply $x$ by $x$ .

$\frac{x}{x^{2}} - \frac{1}{x^{2}}$

Step 3

Combine the numerators over the common denominator.

$\frac{x - 1}{x^{2}}$