How do you factor: 2x^3 + 7x^2 - 3x -18?

1 Answer
Apr 5, 2018

x^2(2x+7) - 3(x+6)

Here's how I did it:

Explanation:

2x^3 + 7x^2 - 3x - 18

We will factor this by grouping:
(2x^3 + 7x^2) + (-3x - 18)

To factor, we have to see what everything has in common. For 2x^3 + 7x^2, both expressions have x^2 in them, so we can take x^2 out:
x^2(2x + 7)

For -(3x+18), they both have -3 in common, so we take that out:
-3(x+6)

Now we combine these two expressions:
x^2(2x+7) - 3(x+6)