This week in math we looked at factoring ugly trinomials. At first I struggled with the concept, but I found a very simple strategy to figure it out.

Box Method

The Box Method:

The way you start is by putting the variable with the highest degree of the top right and the constant (The term with no variables) in the bottom left, once you have those two numbers you put cross multiply. In the example the answer is 6. The way you find the top left and the bottom is you list the factors and you pick the factors that add up to the middle value which in the case is 5. Once you put the terms in the box. Then you horizontally find the things (factors, variables) and then do the same thing vertically. After that you group the like terms into 2 different brackets. Then you have your answer.