How do you factor $3x^2 + 5x - 2 = 0$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-04-01T17:52:06

$color(blue)( (3x - 1) ( x + 2 )$ is the factorised form of the expression.

$3x^2 + 5x -2 = 0$

We can Split the Middle Term of this expression to factorise it.

In this technique, if we have to factorise an expression like $ax^2 + bx + c$ , we need to think of 2 numbers such that:

$N_1*N_2 = a*c = 3*(-2) = - 6$

AND

$N_1 +N_2 = b = 5$

After trying out a few numbers we get $N_1 = -1$ and $N_2 =6$

$6*(-1) = -6$ , and $6+(-1)= 5$

$3x^2 + 5x -2 = 3x^2 + 6x -1x-2$

$= 3x ( x + 2 ) -1 ( x + 2)$

$=color(blue)( (3x - 1) ( x + 2 )$

$color(blue)( (3x - 1) ( x + 2 )$ is the factorised form of the expression.

How do you factor 3x^2 + 5x - 2 = 03x^2 + 5x - 2 = 0?