This week I learned how to factor trinomials.

For example,

First, we find two factors of 15 that add to -2. BUT since its a negative 15, it means our answer must include a positive and a negative.

So two factors of 15 that add to -2 are -5 and 3. (-5 + 3 = -2)

Since there’s an x² we know that both brackets will include and x because x ⋅ x = x²

Now we add everything to the brackets, and our final answer will be:

(x -5)(x +3)

Another example,

This time its easier because everything is positive, which means our final answer will have no negatives.

First we find two factors of 16 that add to 10, which are 8 and 2. Again, since our first term is x² , we add an x to both brackets.

Now we put everything together and we should have:

(x +8)(x +3)

all examples by me 🙂