Question

When written in factored form, 4w² - 11w -3 is equivalent to 1. (2w + 1) (2w -3) 2. (2w-1) (2w + 3) 3. (4w + 1) (w - 3) 4. (4w - 1) (w +3)​

Answer 1

3. (4w + 1) (w - 3)

Explanation:

Since the leading coefficient of the w term is not 1, we cannot use the sum-product method to factor the quadratic expression

We need to find two integers with a product of -12 (the leading coefficient times the constant term) and a sum of 4 (the w-coefficient). Those numbers are -3 and 4.

These two numbers tell us how to break up the w term in the original expression.

Then we can use the FOIL method to check our work.