How do you factor v4+71v2+70?

1 Answer
May 17, 2015

Notice that 71=70+1 and 70=70×1.

So we can factor v4+71v2+70=(v2+70)(v2+1)

This is an instance of the identity:
(x+a)(x+b)=x2+(a+b)x+(a×b)

With x=v2, a=70 and b=1.

There are no linear factors with real coefficients because

v2+7070>0 and v2+11>0 for all real values of v.