how do you factor

Question

how do you factor 3x^2 ive tried and i cant figure it out

Answer 1

Hi, Bianca.

Since this is a monomial (only one term), let's look at what it is made of. 3x^2 means 3 times x times x. Since these are multiplied together, they are the factors. So you would factor it as (3)(x)(x). 

Hope this helps!

Kathye

Answer 2

When you factor things, you are probably used to seeing something like X² + BX + C = (X+    )(X+     ), where the two numbers that go in the blanks add up to B and multiply to C. In this case, we can think of the equation as 3X² + 0X + 0. Now, we factor out the 3, and get 3(X² + 0X + 0). Now we use the parentheses.

3(X+    )(X+    ) we are looking for two numbers that add up to 0 and multiply to 0. What are they? 0 and 0 of course! So, 

3(X+0)(X+0) is the factoring. Since X+0 just equals 0, our final answer is

3(X)(X).

This may look like there are a few extra steps, but if you always do these problems in the same way, they will become much easier. 

 

 

Answer 3

You can look at this like 3x^2 + 0x + 0. So when you factor, it would be (3x + 0)(x + 0), or (3x)(x)