What is Factoring?
Factoring can be a very intimidating thing, but once you get the hang
of it you will be a pro.
First, let me make sure you understand what factoring is. To factor
anything, you get it into its smaller component parts, finding out
what smaller parts make up the bigger part. For instance, when you
factor a number, say 12, you break it into its smallest parts. You
could start with 6 x 2. Then 6 can be factored into 2 x 3, so your
factors of 12 could be 2 x 2 x 3. So to factor x^2 + 5x + 4 is to break
it down into simpler parts.
You may have already done some problems like this:
(x + 3)(x - 4)
Multiplying it out gives you:
x^2 - 4x + 3x - 12
Simplifying:
x^2 - x - 12
There are some very important things to notice here: you get the first
term of the trinomial, x ^2 (they call it a trinomial because three
terms are being added) by multiplying the FIRST terms in each
parenthesis (x * x).
The last number in the trinomial, the constant (meaning it has no x's
in it) (-12) comes from multiplying the LAST terms in each
parenthesis (3 * -4).
To get the middle term (the x term, which in this case is - x), first
multiply the first term in the first parenthesis (x) by the last term in
the second parenthesis (-4) (we can call these terms the OUTSIDE terms
because they are the outside terms of the two parentheses). Then multiply
the last term in the first parenthesis (3) by the first term in the
second parenthesis (x) (we can call the terms in the second parenthesis
the INSIDE terms because they are the inside terms of the two parentheses).
Then add the "inside" and the "outside" together. Thus the middle term
becomes 3x - 4x = -x.
You can also remember this by remembering the word F O I L. Foil
stands for First, Outside, Inside, Last.
To review: in (x + 3)(x - 4) the First is x* x or x^2, the Outside
is x * (-4) (or -4x) the Inside is3 * x (or 3x) and the Last is
(3) * (-4) (or -12)
(x + 3) and (x - 4) are factors of x^2 - x - 12
Factoring a trinomial is just doing the reverse of what I just did in
the problem above. You want to get from the trinomial back to the
factors. First make sure your problem is written in the right way,
that is, the term with x^2 comes first (the first term), the term with
x (also called the middle term) comes next, and the constant - the term
with no x in it - comes last. In your problem x^2 is the first term,
5x is the middle term, and 4 is the last term.
Step 1 is to write the problem on your paper:
x^2 + 5x + 4
Step 2 is to write two empty parentheses like this:
( )( )
We do this because we know the factors of a trinomial look this way.
Step 3 is to look at the first term, which is x^2. We know from the
problem I did above that the x^2 term comes from multiplying the first
term in the first parenthesis by the first term in the second
parenthesis. What are the only two things that can be multiplied together
to give you x^2? That's right! x * x will give you x^2. You write it
like this:
(x )(x )
Step 4 is to look at signs. Remember from the problem above that the
constant term (the one with no x in it) is found by multiplying
the last terms of each parenthesis. Because the sign of the constant
term in your problem (4) is plus, the signs of both the numbers that
multiply together to give you 4 have to be either positive or negative
(because a + * + or a - * - gives you a positive number, and a + * -
will give you a negative number). So your parentheses could now look
like this:
(x - )(x - ) or this: (x + )(x + )
Look back at my previous problem to see what gave you a middle term.
Remember you are adding the "outside" to the "inside." If both signs
are minus, this will give you a minus number; if both signs are plus
it will give you a plus number. Because +5x is positive, you know that
the signs have to be positive. Thus you get:
(x + )(x + )
Step 5 is the tricky part. You know that the last term is found by
multiplying the last two numbers in each parenthesis together. This
means the numbers could either be 4 and 1, or 2 and 2 (because
4 x 1 = 4 or 2 x 2 = 4). But you also know that the inside terms
multiplied together plus the outside terms multiplied together will
give you the middle term, so you have to try them out. Let's try
2 and 2:
(x+ 2)(x +2) = x^2 +2x +2x + 4 = x^2 + 4x + 4
Whoops! The middle term is not right. We need 5x not 4x. Now let's
try 4 and 1:
(x + 4)(x + 1) = x^2 + 4x + 1x + 4 = x^2 + 5x +4
We got it. The factors of x^2 + 5x + 4 are (x + 4) and (x +1).
Let's try another one:
Factor x^2 + x - 2
Here are our parentheses:
( ) ( )
Remember F O I L (first, outside, inside, last)
x^2 is the first terms multiplied together and the only thing they can
be are x and x:
(x )(x )
The sign in front of the constant is a minus (-2) so the signs have
to be different (this is the only way we can get a -2, found by
multiplying the last terms).
(x + ) (x - )
Now, because the term in front of the x term (+x) is a plus we know
that when we multiply the outside and inside terms together and add
them to each other, we need to end up with a plus. Because the signs
are different, the bigger term will have to be a plus. Now the only
factors of 2 are 2 and 1 so they will be the only numbers we will
have to worry about.
If we put 2 and 1 in like this:
(x +2) (x -1) = x^2 - x + 2x - 2 = x^2+ x - 2
If we had reversed the 2 and the 1 we would have ended up with -x
instead of +x.
That was a long explanation. The main things to remember are FOIL
(first, outside, inside, last) and that sometimes it may take a
little trial and error to get the right facts. Always multiply the
factors back out to make sure you end up with what you started with.
Comments (20)
Anonymous said
at 9:16 pm on Oct 19, 2007
Good Job, looks like you worked hard enough to get to this part of the project. Good luck.
Anonymous said
at 10:40 pm on Oct 20, 2007
thanks
Anonymous said
at 9:29 pm on Nov 3, 2007
nice... looks like something from last yera :P
Anonymous said
at 9:48 am on Nov 5, 2007
dang brandon! great start looks awsome you should add more color though
Anonymous said
at 9:55 am on Nov 5, 2007
guud job brandon
Anonymous said
at 1:04 pm on Nov 5, 2007
wow! nice brandon you did a very nice job
Anonymous said
at 1:04 pm on Nov 5, 2007
dood this is good! add more colors to make it look more funn! :)
Anonymous said
at 1:31 pm on Nov 5, 2007
oh nice comic. long explianitions cool
Anonymous said
at 2:35 pm on Nov 5, 2007
you really need some colors, and you need to show the examples in a colorful way.
Anonymous said
at 2:43 pm on Nov 5, 2007
pretty nice brandons
Anonymous said
at 2:46 pm on Nov 5, 2007
hey brandon make your page more colorful and it will be perfect. more pictures too!
Anonymous said
at 2:54 pm on Nov 5, 2007
needs a bigger font
Anonymous said
at 2:54 pm on Nov 5, 2007
needs a bigger font
Anonymous said
at 2:58 pm on Nov 5, 2007
explain why you break down the numbers in your examples.
Anonymous said
at 4:55 pm on Nov 5, 2007
great job, maybe a bigger font, and more colors!!!
Anonymous said
at 5:57 pm on Nov 5, 2007
awsome page
Anonymous said
at 9:29 pm on Nov 5, 2007
Brandon; your page looks really good.
i like the cartoony thing at the end. it`s pretty sick.
&& there`s a lot of information that makes it very clear. :]]
Anonymous said
at 9:41 pm on Nov 5, 2007
brandon put more coloring but very nice after all
Anonymous said
at 4:48 pm on Nov 7, 2007
i love the colors you used
Anonymous said
at 5:21 pm on Nov 21, 2007
Great explanation, what about links? What about factoring things that are not trinomials, like numbers?
3 of 4 points
10.5 of 12 total project points
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