a)

To simplify the expression , we can start by recognizing that . Thus, we can rewrite the numerator as .

Next, we can factor the expression as follows:

Now our expression looks like this:

For the final simplification, if is not equal to zero, we can leave it in this factored form. If (which happens when ), then this is the point of discontinuity.

This gives us the simplified expression and an understanding of the behavior at specific values of . Happy calculating!