Factoring Special

Products

Factoring: The reverse of

multiplicationUse the distributive property to turn the product back into

factors.

To do this, look for the GCF!

Example:5x2-15x

GCF = 5xPull out 5x from each

term!

5x(x-3) is the factored form

12x2-18x+6GCF=6

6(2x2-3x+1)

Factoring Special Products

a2-b2=(a+b)(a-b)

This is the difference of 2 squares!

Perfect Square Trinomial Pattern

222 )(2 bababa 442 xx

222 )2()2()2)((2)( xxx*Look to see if the first and last terms are perfect squares, and the middle term is 2ab - if so - it will factor into

2)( ba

FACTOR:

92416 2 yy

Perfect square polynomial:

(4y + 3)2

4981 xDifference of

perfect squares: (9-3x2)(9+3x2)

499 tDoesn’t factor, no common

factor except 1!

81364 2 cc

Perfect square polynomial:

(2c-9)2