pka
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2005
- Messages
- 11,971
I have no idea what the box method is. But whatever it is, it is useless in factoring.2x + 9x -5, box method won't work.
Having won a citywide factoring contest years ago, I can tell you how to learn factoring.
My algebra teacher then gave me a sheet of four hundred problems.
They all looked like \(\displaystyle (7x-4)(2x+5)\). When I objected saying "Mrs. L, these are multiplications not facting".
She said to me "Plato just do them and talk to me Monday".
Monday: She asked me if I had done them all. Yes mam. Then here factor \(\displaystyle 2x^2+9x-5\).
I took one look at it and saw that \(\displaystyle 2\cdot 5=10~\&~10-1=9\) so I knew how to factor it.
That one simple lesson took me all the way through a PhD program.
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