Question

How do you factor `x³+7x²+10x`?

Answer 1

Factoring involves looking for patterns, such as common factors and numbers that add to one term and multiply to another.

Explanation:

The first step is to look for factors that are common to all terms. In this case, every term has at least one `x` term, so we can factor that out.

`x(x^2+7x+10)`

Now in the backets, we look for numbers that add to the second coefficient, and multiply together to make the final term. In this case. two numbers that add to 7 and multiply to 10. It seems that 2 and 5 fit the bill, so it factors to:

`x(x+2)(x+5)`