How do you divide # (-x3 + 22x2 - 120x) div (x - 12)#?

1 Answer
Dec 8, 2015

Factoring allows you to divide easily to get #-x^2+10x#

Explanation:

First pull a #-x# out of #(-x^3+22x^2-120x)# to get:

#-x(x^2-22x+120)#

This can be factored to get

#-x(x-12)(x-10)#

The first thing i would look for when factoring is to see if what you are dividing by, in this case (x-12), is part of the factored form.
This makes solving very easy because they simply cancel out and you are left with #-x(x-10)=-x^2+10x#