Question

Factor. 6y^2-5y+1

Answer 1

When you are factorising a quadratic where the ^2 coefficent is more than one you multiply the ^2 coeffienct by the standard number.

So you do 6x1 which = 6

So now we want to find a pair of numbers that add to make -5 and multiply to make 6. -3 and -2 fit these conditions nicely so we will choose them :).

Now we split the -5y into -3y and -2y to get

6y^2-3y-2y+1

From there we pull the highest common factor out of the first two terms and last two terms and we get 3y(2y-1)x-1(2y-1). Notice how both of the brackets are the same? We can just now put the terms outside the brackets together and the brackets together to get (3y-1)(-2y+1) which is your final answer.