How do you factor the expression 2x^4 + 16x?

1 Answer
Mar 10, 2016

2x^4+16x=2x(x+2)(x^2-2x+4)

Explanation:

The idea is to transform the expression in a form where you can use the remarkable factorization identities.

Here we can use Factoring by Grouping to obtain:

2x^4+16x=color(green)(2x)(x^3+8)=2x(x^3+2^3)

Now, the second factor is a sum of cubes, then we can use the following identity:

(a^3+b^3)=(a+b)(a^2-ab+b^2)

where:

a=x, b=2

:.2x(x^3+2^3)=2xcolor(green)((x+2)(x^2-x*2+2^2))=
=2x(x+2)(x^2-2x+4)

No more factorization allowed