Uh oh! We need to remember how to factor Quadratics and learn how to factor Cubics and Quartics in order to find the zeros and graph them!

What if the GCF is a variable? This is how we can factor some CUBIC functions. Still keep the GCF infront of your answer like this:

What if the GCF is a number AND variable?

Can you do that??

So you think you're a pro at factoring trinomials?? What if you CAN'T divide out a GCF?!

Hint: Guess & Check

CLICK HERE to watch a 3 minute example.

You may also see some Quartic trinomials where you CAN'T factor out a variable. However, these will be in "Quadratic form" like this:

If you need to factor a BINOMIAL (2 terms) check to see if you can use Difference of Squares. You can only use this method if you have a perfect square minus a perfect square.

Recall which numbers are perfect squares:

1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,100,121,144..

Look at these examples and/or click here to watch a 2 minute example.

Sometimes we can factor difference of squares TWICE or after another factoring method. Check out these examples:

Notice how you can only use difference of squares with negative parentheses.