How do you factorise the algebraic expression x^2 +5x+ 6?
Factorising is all about writing algebraic expressions using brackets, to separate x terms.(x + ... )(x +... ) when multiplying out the brackets there will be an x2 term, an x term and a numerical term. Breaking down the expression is the key to factorising it correctly.Looking at our example we need to find two numbers that will MULTIPLY to equal 6 and that will SUM to equal 5. Looking at our options for multiplication first:2 x 36 x 1 Now we have our options for multiplication we must pick that the two numbers SUM to make 5. Our only pair of numbers that satisfy this criteria are 2 and 3.Hence we can now substitute these into our brackets to get (x + 2)(x + 3) Our expression is factorised correctly.
JC
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