Frequent Questions about our Solver

The problem

Click to see the original problem

I'm not sure on where to start with the factoring.

Answer provided by our tutors

Yea, that expression is not easily manually-factored.  I can offer a couple of tips, as shown in the image. 

-9 factors to 3*(-3), hence (x+3)(x-3) are easily arrived as a good first step. 

36 factors to (-9)(-4), which can be factored to (-9)(2^2)(-1), leading to (x+2)^2 and (x-1) as good factors. 

The sums which lead to the prime '-31' will then support those factors. 

← Previous Problem Next Problem →