How do you factor x55x336x completely?

1 Answer
Feb 5, 2015

We need to start out by factoring out any common factors. We notice that we can factor out x.

x(x45x236)

Note that x4=(x2)2

x((x2)25x236)

Let r=x2

x(r25r36)

Now factor (r25r36)

x(r9)(r+4)

Replace r with x2

x(x29)(x2+4)

We should recognize (x29) as a difference of squares.

Leaving me with

x(x3)(x+3)(x2+4)