Question

How do you factor the trinomial `2x^2+20x+50`?

Answer 1

`=2(x+5)^2`

Explanation:

We see that `2` is a common factor among all of the coefficients so we can factor `2` to the front giving us:

`2(x^2+10x+25)`

We now need 2 numbers which add to give `10` and multiply to give `25` (or use the quadratic formula). These 2 numbers will be `5` and `5` (`5+5=10, 5*5=25`). So we get:

`2(x+5)(x+5)`
`=2(x+5)^2`