How do you factor the expression $4x^2 - 25$ ?

Question

1600 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-02-10T21:46:24

See the entire explanation below:

This expression is in the form:

$a^2x^2 - b^2$ and can be factored to:

$(sqrt(a^2x^2) - sqrt(b^2))(sqrt(a^2x^2) + sqrt(b^2))$

Substituting the values from the problem gives:

$4x^2 - 25 = 2^2x^2 - 5^2 = (sqrt(2^2x^2) - sqrt(5^2))(sqrt(2^2x^2) + sqrt(5^2)) =$

$(2x - 5)(2x + 5)$

How do you factor the expression 4x^2 - 254x^2 - 25?