Question 124326This question is from textbook Algebra 1
: Need to know how to solve 5x(squared)-26x+5 (factoring problem). Page 301, problem #14. The book is the California Edition This question is from textbook Algebra 1
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Given the following expression to factor:
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The 5 that is the multiplier of the has only two factors ... namely 5 and 1. So
the can only factor to 5x times 1x (or just 5x times x). This means the pair of
factors must be of the form:
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(5x +_____)*(x + _____)
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The constant in the expression is also +5. It can factor into either +5 and +1 or into -5 and -1
because in either case the product is +5. However, in the original expression, the middle term is
negative. Therefore, we need to introduce a negative sign. This means that the factors of the
+5 constant must be the pair -5 and -1. This means that our factors have two possibilities. They
are either:
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or:
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If you multiply out the first set of factors the result is:
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That didn't work. So multiply out the second set of factors:
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and that does work because the product is the same as the original expression you were given
to factor.
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So the answer to this problem is that the factored form of the original expression is:
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Hope this helps you to understand the problem a little better.
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