Sum of a number and it's reciprocal is 6. What is the number? Let the number be n. The reciprocal is 1/n. The word is means an equation, so we set n + 1/n equal to 6 n + 1/n = 6 Multiply each side by n to remove the fraction: n^2 + 1 = 6n Subtract 6n from each side: n^2 - 6n + 1 = 0 <-- This is our algebraic expression If the problem asks you to solve for n, then you type this quadratic equation into our search engine.
