Factoring a Difference of Squares with Terms That Are Not Monomials
Date: 10/26/2008 at 21:55:53 From: Aaron Subject: Factoring difference of squares that are not monomials I
Factoring a Difference of Squares with Terms That Are Not Monomials
Date: 10/26/2008 at 21:55:53 From: Aaron Subject: Factoring difference of squares that are not monomials I need to know how to do this, and I can't do it..like here's an example if I'm not making sense. X power 4 minus (2X - 1) squared. That's an example out of my text book but I don't understand there method of solving. Could you please give me another example or just explain it?
Date: 10/26/2008 at 22:58:20 From: Doctor Peterson Subject: Re: Factoring difference of squares that are not monomials Hi, Aaron. First, I assume you understand the general rule: any difference of squares can be factored as a sum times a difference: (a)^2 - (b)^2 = (a + b)(a - b) The "a" and "b" in this formula can be ANYTHING--a single variable, a monomial, or a more complicated expression. The key is to identify what "a" and "b" are in your expression and write it out to make them clear before actually factoring. In your example, you'd have (x^2)^2 - (2x - 1)^2 so that "a" would be represented by x^2 and "b" would be represented by (2x - 1). Here's an example that's even more complicated than yours: 9(x-1)^2 - 4(x+1)^2 First, we see that each term is the square of something; I'll write them as squares to make that plain: [3(x-1)]^2 - [2(x+1)]^2 That is, inside the  I wrote the square root of each part of a term, showing what had to