Question

what is factorising? can someone please give me a simple explanation i will understand!! here's my question: 6m-8

Answer 1

factorizing means splitting in to factors... for in your eg.... 6m-8

we have 6m and 8

both have 2 as common factor

hence we split 2 from each and put it before the eqn

that means 2(3m-4)

now if you equal it to zero m becomes 4/3 hope u understood...

Answer 2

okay i will give you a question of my own

x²-4x-5

you will multiply your constant by the coefficient of x²

1 x -5=-5

then you will look for two numbers which multiply to give -5 but add to give the coefficient of x which in this case is -4

so write out the factors of -5

1 x -5

this is the only one in this case.

so next is whether to have +1 and -5
or -1 +5
or -1 -5

well -1 -5 gives -6 so we do not want this set of factors

-1+5 gives 4 but we want -4

+1-5 gives -4 so we shall use this set

this is actually our coefficients of x, these replace -4x so you write them as x -5x

so our new equation is

x² +x -5x -5

now we will factorise this in two parts
first we will factorise x²+x

we take out the highest common factor in both
in this case we will take out an x
then you look at what will multiply by x to give you x² and what we multiply x by to give +x

so we have
x(x+1)

then we will factorise -5x-5

the highest factor in this is -5
so -5 goes out side the brackets

what do we multiply -5 by to get -5x and a -5?

-5(x+1)

so our new equation now is

x(x+1)-5(x+1)

so we split this up, we have x+1 as one of our brackets, our other brackets will be what is not in brackets which is x-5

so we have
(x+1)(x-5)