Megan factored the expression 72x^2-43x+6 as (9x-3) (8x-2) . But when Jacob applied the FOIL principle and multiplied out (9x-3) (8x-2) , he got 72x^2-42x+6 ; thus, Megan’s solution does not appear to check. Why is that? Please help Megan to understand this better. Explain your reasoning and correctly factor the original expression, if possible. If the expression is prime, so state.

Question

Megan factored the expression  72x^2-43x+6 as (9x-3) (8x-2) . But when Jacob applied the FOIL principle and multiplied out (9x-3) (8x-2) , he got 72x^2-42x+6 ; thus, Megan’s solution does not appear to check. Why is that? Please help Megan to understand this better. Explain your reasoning and correctly factor the original expression, if possible. If the expression is prime, so state.

anonymous · Answer

This equation is not factorable, it is a prime. You will need to use the quadratic formula to determine the values of x.

anonymous · Answer

yup