Question

How do you factor: `2x^3 + 7x^2 - 3x -18`?

Answer 1

`x^2(2x+7) - 3(x+6)`

Here's how I did it:

Explanation:

`2x^3 + 7x^2 - 3x - 18`

We will factor this by grouping:
`(2x^3 + 7x^2) + (-3x - 18)`

To factor, we have to see what everything has in common. For `2x^3 + 7x^2`, both expressions have `x^2` in them, so we can take `x^2` out:
`x^2(2x + 7)`

For `-(3x+18)`, they both have `-3` in common, so we take that out:
`-3(x+6)`

Now we combine these two expressions:
`x^2(2x+7) - 3(x+6)`