Factoring Trinomials

In the last few blogs we have talked about multiplying binomials to produce a trinomial.

Now we are going to practice undoing or FACTORING trinomials.

We begin by listing all the factors of the constant term (term with no variable).

We look at the factors and see if any of them will add up to the middle term.










Last we look at the signs in the trinomial.  The last sign tells us whether the signs in the binomals are the same or different.  

The only way to multiply two numbers and get a positive number is for both numbers to be positive or both number are negative.

The sign for the middle term tells us if the signs in the binomials are poistive or negative.

When both signs in the trinomial are positive the signs in the parenthesis are positive.

(x + 3)(x + 10)