Solving $\frac{1}{(x-1)} - \frac{1}{(x-2)} = \frac{1}{(x-3)} - \frac{1}{(x-4)}$. Why is my solution wrong? I'm following all hitherto me known rules for solving equations, but the result is wrong. Please explain why my approach is not correct.
We want to solve:
$$\frac{1}{(x-1)} - \frac{1}{(x-2)} = \frac{1}{(x-3)} - \frac{1}{(x-4)}\tag1$$
Moving the things in RHS to LHS:
$$\frac{1}{(x-1)} - \frac{1}{(x-2)} - \frac{1}{(x-3)} + \frac{1}{(x-4)} = 0\tag2$$
Writing everything above a common denominator:
$$\frac{1}{(x-4)(x-1)(x-2)(x-3)}\bigg[(x-2)(x-3)(x-4) - (x-1)(x-3)(x-4) - (x-2)(x-1)(x-4) + (x-1)(x-2)(x-3)\bigg] = 0\tag3$$
Multiplying both sides with the denominator to cancel the denominator:
$$(x-2)(x-3)(x-4) - (x-1)(x-3)(x-4) - (x-2)(x-1)(x-4) + (x-1)(x-2)(x-3) = 0\tag4$$
Multiplying the first two factors in every term:
$$(x^2-3x-2x+6)(x-4) - (x^2-3x-x+3)(x-4) - (x^2-x-2x+2)(x-4) + (x^2-2x-x+2)(x-3) = 0\tag5$$
Simplifying the first factors in every term:
$$(x^2-5x+6)(x-4) - (x^2-4x+3)(x-4) - (x^2-3x+2)(x-4) + (x^2-3x+2)(x-3) = 0\tag6$$
Multiplying factors again:
$$(x^3-4x^2-5x^2+20x+6x-24) - (x^3-4x^2-4x^2+16x+3x-12) - (x^3-4x^2-3x^2-12x+2x-8) + (x^3-3x^2-3x^2+9x+2x-6) = 0\tag7$$
Removing the parenthesis yields:
$$x^3-4x^2-5x^2+20x+6x-24 - x^3+4x^2+4x^2-16x-3x+12 - x^3+4x^2+3x^2+12x-2x+8 + x^3-3x^2-3x^2+9x+2x-6 = 0\tag8$$
Which results in:
$$28x - 10 = 0 \Rightarrow 28x = 10 \Rightarrow x = \frac{5}{14}\tag9$$
which is not correct. The correct answer is $x = \frac{5}{2}$.

The error is in the third group of parentheses in the "multiplying factors again" step. What you have as $-12x$ should be positive.
