How to find the equation of a graph of a rational function from a set of points?

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For example, the data points are:

$(1,1)$

$(2,1/2)$

$(3,1/3)$

$(4,1/4)$

$(5,1/5)$

How do I find the equation from those points? Do I look at the common ratio of the y-values or something?

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Since you're just asking for a curve fitting those points, note that each given point $(x,y)$ has the form $\left(x,\frac{1}{x}\right) \Rightarrow y=\frac{1}{x}$. For this particular problem, the problem-solving skill you're using is called pattern recognition.

For other problems that ask you to find the curve given a set number of points, you generally need $n+1$ points to determine an equation with degree $n$. If a pattern isn't immediately evident, then you generally need computer software to find the best fit equation.