Question on Hard Problem

Hi all,

For the problem below, I factored out x from both equations and got x(x^2-1) = x(x+5) and then divided those x’s, which obviously gave me 2 as the total number of solutions and thus the wrong answer. Anyone have any advice on what I’m missing here that made my answer incorrect? Shouldn’t this problem be, at a minimum, (D), as it could be either 2 solutions or 3?

Let me know - thanks!

This is impossible since the number of solutions cannot vary.

That’s where you went wrong. Hint: what happens when you plug x = 0 in the equations?