Factoring with the zero product rule

veng

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Alright I need more then the answers, I need to know HOW to do it. Im in zero hour ( school starts at 7 instead of 8 ) so I can finish this and I am almost done, so the faster I learn the sooner I can sleep in more :(



Its "factoring with the zero product rule" its an online class so here is a screen shot of the problems im having, also note this has the answers on it, the answers are in the box, again im trying to figure out how to get them.

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The zero product rule simply says that if two (or more) quantities are multiplied and produce a product of zero, then at least one of them must be equal to zero. In other words, the only way you can get a product of zero, is if one of the factors (multipliers) is a zero. Therefore if you can manipulate an equation so that there are factors that produce a zero product, you know that one of those factors must equal zero. You don't know which one or even if more than one might be zero. So you set each of them equal to zero and solve that equation for the variable. Be sure to check by plugging the possibility back into the original equation or into the original word problem because sometimes you will get an answer that is not viable.
 


You did not explain why you're confused.

Exercises 1, 2, and 3 all show the steps leading to the answer. Did your online class give you any lessons on this method?

There are thousands of lessons available for this method, on the Internet. (I just Googled "zero-product property".)

CLICK HERE for a silent video demonstration

CLICK HERE for a text explanation

(If you don't like these explanations, then search for others.)

If you need more help understanding exercises 1, 2, and 3, after reading lesson(s), then you need to tell me what it is that you don't understand. This is the only way that I can determine how to help you.

Exercises 8, 9, and 10 are not using the Zero-Product Property; they used a different method.

After they got a squared expression on the left and a constant on the right, then they took the square root of both sides.

Each step is typed out for you.

Again, unless you tell me what it is that you do not understand about the steps they've shown you, I cannot know what you're thinking. Therefore, I cannot know what to tell you.

You tell me why you're stuck, and we'll go from there.

 
I sort of get this but not really....

So if they gave me a list of possible answers, I would just mutiply them by 0.... im doing this wrong i think lol
 
veng said:
I sort of get this but not really.... <<< I have no idea what this means.

So if they gave me a list of possible answers, I would just mutiply them by 0


On a multiple-choice question, you do NOT multiply all of the choices by zero.

If you were to do this, then all of the choices would be zero!

When you're given a multiple-choice question, you answer the question first, and then you look for your answer among the list of possible answers.

You still have not told me what it is about exercises 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10 that you do not understand.

All of the steps are typed out for you. Which step do you not understand?
 
Its "factoring with the zero product rule" its an online class so here is a screen shot of the problems im having, also note this has the answers on it, the answers are in the box, again im trying to figure out how to get them.

Veng,

Don’t make this hard; it’s not! Consider this: a*b = 0. Obviously if either “a” or “b” is equal to 0, then the equation is true. That’s all the Zero Product Rule says!

Look at your first example:

(x+2)(x-3) = 0

That means we just take the two individual factors, (x+2) and (x-3), and set each of them equal to 0 and solve for x:

x+2 = 0 and x-3 = 0.

We get two different answers for x; x = -2 and x = 3. That’s it – nothing complicated!
 
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