How do you simplify #4x^2+3x+1-8x#?

1 Answer
George C.
Jun 7, 2015

#4x^2+3x+1-8x#

#=4x^2+3x-8x+1#

#=4x^2+(3-8)x+1#

#=4x^2-5x+1#

#=(4x-1)(x-1)#

Incidentally, there are a few different ways to spot this last step, including this little trick:

Given #4x^2-5x+1#, extract the digits to get #451# and factor that to get #41xx11#. Then taking the #-# sign into account, #41# becomes #(4x-1)# and #11# becomes #(x-1)#. (This only works if the multiplication involves no carrying of digits)

Related questions
See all questions in Expressions with One or More Variables
Impact of this question
1678 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License