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Factoring a quadratic with leading coefficient greater than 1: Problem type 1
7x²-2x-5

User Tyshock
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1 Answer

3 votes

Answer:

(7x - 5)(x + 1).

Explanation:

To factor the quadratic 7x²-2x-5, we need to find two numbers whose product is 7*(-5)=-35 and whose sum is -2.

We can start by listing the factors of 35: 1, 5, 7, 35.

Then we can look for pairs of factors whose sum is -2. We can see that -5 and 7 satisfy this condition, because -5 + 7 = 2.

Now we can rewrite the quadratic as:

7x² - 2x - 5 = 7x² + 7x - 9x - 5

= 7x(x + 1) - 5(x + 1)

= (7x - 5)(x + 1)

Therefore, the factored form of 7x²-2x-5 is (7x - 5)(x + 1).

User David Kidwell
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6.9k points