Question

How do you factor `14x^2 + 29x - 15`?

Answer 1

If `14x^2+29x-15`
`=(ax+b)(cx-d) color(white)("XXXXX")`we know there needs to be a 'minus' on the `d` because of the 'minus' on `15`

then we are looking for

• factors `a and c` of `14`, and
• factors `b and d` of `15`
  such that `bc-ad = 29`

Fortunately there are not a lot of factor pairs for `14 and 15`
so we can quickly come up with
`(2x+5)(7x-3)`