Question

Someone explain a math lesson to me. My teacher named the assignment "Factor with X," but the assignment doesn't have to do with factoring alone. It also involves brackets and grouping, I think he mentioned? So far, I think the lesson is called "Factoring trinomials with a common factor." But I'm still a little unsure.

Answer 1

you got a specific problem to solve?

Answer 2

7b^2 + 46b + 24

Answer 3

if its rational then given: ax^2 + bx + c

we can start factoring it as ac = k, such that k has factors that add to b

Answer 4

spose ac = k = mn, such that m+n=b

then we can factor this as:

(x+m/a) (x+n/a)

and we are left with 2 steps to clean it up

Answer 5

7(24) = 168

1,168
2,84
4,42 ... 4+42 = 46 sooo

(x+4/7) (x+42/7)

simplify, if theres still a fraction left, put the bottom in front

(x+4/7) (x+6)

(7x+4) (x+6)

Answer 6

you can use the quadratic formula to solve 7x^2 + 46x + 24 = 0 for x to get these two solutions

x = -4/7 or x = -6

then transform each equation to make 0 be on the right side

7x = -4 or x = -6

7x+4 = 0 or x+6 = 0

Finally, you can use the zero product property to get

(7x+4)(x+6) = 0

This shows us that 7x^2 + 46x + 24 factors to (7x+4)(x+6)

Answer 7

I don't understand where you got -4/7 and -6 from. And I'm not familiar with the quadratic formula.

Answer 8

if you haven't learned about the quadratic formula yet, then don't worry about it

Answer 9

it's something you'll learn later on in your algebra course

it's a formula to solve things like 7x^2 + 46x + 24 = 0 for x

Answer 10

here is a page with a few examples

http://www.purplemath.com/modules/quadform.htm

Answer 11

So, I would substitute x for 0?

Answer 12

no you would plug a = 7, b = 46 and c = 24 into the quadratic formula

Answer 13

then simplify

Answer 14

Why is the plus sign underlined? What does it mean?

Answer 15

it represents "plus or minus"

when we say something like "5 plus or minus 3" we mean 5+3 or 5-3

Answer 16

so what's really going on is that we have two equations