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8 votes
8 votes
Jake factored 16x2 - 24x + 9 and he got the answer (4x + 3)2. What did he do wrong? What is the correct answer?Can someone please help me out with this!

User Txulu
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2.7k points

1 Answer

26 votes
26 votes

He swapped the minus sign by the plus sign.

1) Considering the quadratic expression:

16x²-24x +9

Examining carefully we can note that this is a binomial (a -b)²

16x²-24x +9

(4x² - 2 * 4x*3 + 3²)

2) Hence, factoring we have that 16x²-24x +9 = (4x - 3)²

3) Therefore the mistake Jake has made is swapping the minus by the plus sign.

User Viswanatha Swamy
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2.7k points