1: How do you factor the perfect square trinomial? Give an example, showing each step. Does this make factoring easier or more complicated? Why?
2: How do you factor trinomials of the form ax2 + bx + c. Is there more than one way to factor this? Give an example and explain
3: Example: Factor: x2 - 9.
Both x2 and 9 are perfect squares. Since subtraction is occurring between these squares, this expression is the difference of two squares. What times itself will give x2 ? The answer is x. What times itself will give 9 ? The answer is 3. The factors are (x + 3) and (x - 3) or (x - 3) (x + 3), because in this case order isn't important. Also, remember An algebraic term is a perfect square whenthe numerical coefficient is a perfect square and the exponents of each of the variables are even numbers. Yes, this makes factoring easier for me, because I can solve the problem in my head.