Question

Hank’s teacher asked him to verify that the product (y−3)(y2+3y+9) is a difference of cubes. He used the distributive property to multiply the binomial times the trinomial. Before simplifying, his product was a polynomial of the form y3+3y2+ay−3y2−ay−27. What is the value of a in the polynomial? 3 9 18 27

Answer 1

a = 9

Explanation:

In the product (y−3)(y2+3y+9), we can get the first degree term of y in two ways,

y*(9), or -3*(3y)...............value in parentheses are from the second factor

therefore a = 9

Answer 2

a = 9

Explanation:

Let's work on the product to answer the question:

`(y-3)\,(y^2+3y+9)= y^3+3y^2+9y-3y^2-9y-27`

therefore the value of the requested "a" is 9