Factorise fully 20x^2 - 5

When factorising an expression, you first want to find the highest common factor in each term of the expression. Here, our terms are 20 and 5. The highest common factor here is 5, so we want to take 5 out of the equation first. When we do this, we get 5(4x^2 - 1).
This expression is not yet fully factorised as (4x^2 - 1) can be split into two more brackets because it is a difference of two squares. Both 4 and 1 are square numbers so this can factorise into (2x-1)(2x+1).
Therefore, our final answer is 5(2x-1)(2x+1).

Answered by Maths tutor

8929 Views

See similar Maths GCSE tutors

Related Maths GCSE answers

All answers ▸

A bag has 24 sweet of different colours: 10 red, 8 blue and 6 yellow. What is the probabilty of not getting a blue sweet ?


A linear sequence is as follows: a+b, a+3b, a+5b .... The 2nd term is equal to 15. The 6th term is 47. What is the value of a? What is the value of b? Show your working.


Expand (x+2)^2


A triangle has sides of 4cm and 5cm with the hypotenuse unknown. What is the length of the unknown side?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences