Factoring is a topic that takes up a few lessons in high-school, because there are many different techniques depending on the difficulty of the given expression.
Also it depends on whether you are looking at integer factors, which limits the possible answers.
For a quadratic expression, the sure way (but not the fastest) is to equate it to zero and find the roots of the resulting equation. Convert the roots to factors.
Other techniques include comparison with standard forms, completing the square, examining the possible factors of the constant term and the coefficient of the leading coefficient, etc. You can read about it in many different sites, for example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial_factorization
For the given example, there is a relatively simple way that works only if all the coefficients are positive.
2x^2+3x+1 can be thought of as 231, which has factors of 11 21. So
2x^2+3x+1 = (x+1)(2x+1)
Same for 2x^2+7x+6. Since 276=23*12
we can try:
(2x+3)(x+2)
A check by multiplication is required in both cases.
ok, I think this is called factoring binomials...
how do you factor
2x^2+3x+1
the example on the page just says: 2x^2+7x+6
the answer given is (2x+3)(x+2)
How do you get that answer?? If there are any websites with additional help that would be great if anyone knows any.
Thanks a bunch!!
Matty
2 answers
What is the slope of the line passing through the points (-3, 24) and (10, -41)? Round to the nearest integer if necessary.
1 answer