In week 5 of Pre-Calculus 12, we learned how to factor. We learned about Factoring 1-2-3
Factoring 1-2-3 consists of 3 steps which are the following
Step 1. Find one thing in common. Remove the greatest common factor. In this case, everything was divisible by 2 so we can factor that out and put that as a coefficient.
Step 2. 2 terms? Difference of squares. 4 is a perfect square and 16 is so we can factor those out and simplify it as seen in the photo below. We should know that (2x)(2x) will leave us with $latex 4x^2
Step 3. 3 Terms? Is there a pattern? This example, we want to follow the rules, product of C, sum of B with the equation being (a+b+c). So we find the factors of C(12)that will add up to B(8). In this case, 2×6 equals C and 2+6 equals to B so that will be part of our final answer. And we should already know that x multiplied by x will leave us with $latex x^2 so our final answer will be (x+2)(x+6).
If you get stuck at a step, then it means that it is prime and not factorable. Below is an example. After we went through step 1, we couldn’t factor out anything else.
