Question

Fill in the blank with a constant, so that the resulting expression can be factored as the product of two linear expressions: 2ab-6a+5b+___

Answer 1

-15

Explanation:

We proceed as follows;

In this question, we want to fill in the blank so that we can have the resulting expression expressed as the product of two different linear expressions.

Now, what to do here is that, when we factor the first two expressions, we need the same kind of expression to be present in the second bracket.

Thus, we have;

2a(b-3) + 5b + _

Now, putting -15 will give us the same expression in the first bracket and this gives us the following;

2a(b-3) + 5b-15

2a(b-3) + 5(b-3)

So we can have ; (2a+5)(b-3)

Hence the constant used is -15