Is there a greatest common factor between all of the terms in the given expression? If so, you should factor that out first.
GCF: 2 Expression: 2(x^2-37x+6)
Practice makes perfect
We want to completely factor the given expression. To do so, we will first identify and factor out the greatest common factor.
Factor Out the GCF
The greatest common factor (GCF) of an expression is a common factor of the terms in the expression. It is the common factor with the greatest coefficient and the greatest exponent. The GCF of the given expression is 2.
Here we have a quadratic trinomial of the form x^2+bx+c and there are no common factors. To factor this expression, we will rewrite the middle term, bx, as two terms. The coefficients of these two terms will be factors of c whose sum must be b.
2(x^2-37x+6) ⇔ 2(x^2+( -37)x+ 6 )
We have that b= -37 and c= 6. There are now two steps we need to follow in order to rewrite the above expression.
Find factors of c. Since c=6, which is positive, we need factors of c to have the same sign — both positive or both negative — in order for the product to be positive. Since b= -37, which is negative, those factors will need to be negative so that their sum is negative.
