Week 6 pre calculus 11 “ best mistake”

This week in math, we were learning about factoring.

One example we worked on it and i had struggled to solve it was

$k^{2}$ + 3k

At first, I made a mistake because I thought I should write it like this:

(k + 3)(k + k)

But that was wrong this would actually equal $2k^{2}$ + 6k not $k^{2}$ .

Then I learned the correct way that is like

To factor properly, you need to find the greatest common factor (GCF) of all terms.

In this case, both terms have a k, so the GCF is k.

When I take k out, I get:

$k^{2}$ + 3k= k(k + 3)

Now I understand that factoring means pulling out the common factor, not just grouping terms randomly.

It was a small mistake, but it helped me understand factoring much better.

Here is some example to explain it better and better understanding

6x + 9

Step 1: Find the greatest common factor (GCF).

Both terms have a common factor of 3.

Step 2: Divide each term by 3 and write the factored form:

6x + 9 = 3(2x + 3)

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