Hi, I have a couple of questions concerning factoring higher-degree polynomials.
The first one comes from an example in the book:
\(\displaystyle 2x^2 - 16x^2 = 0\)
\(\displaystyle 2x^2(x^3 - 8) = 0\)
\(\displaystyle 2x^2(x - 2)(x^2 + 2x + 4) = 0\)
I guess my question is, how does it get from step 2 to step 3? Where does the (x - 2) come from, and where does the quadratic equation in step 3 come form?
The second question is this:
\(\displaystyle w^4 + 8w = 0\)
The problem specifies to find all of the real and imaginary solutions for the equation. I guess I'm supposed to solve this by factoring, but I don't see how factoring could be useful in this problem. The back of the book says the solutions are 0, 2, and +- i*sqrt(3).
Thanks.
The first one comes from an example in the book:
\(\displaystyle 2x^2 - 16x^2 = 0\)
\(\displaystyle 2x^2(x^3 - 8) = 0\)
\(\displaystyle 2x^2(x - 2)(x^2 + 2x + 4) = 0\)
I guess my question is, how does it get from step 2 to step 3? Where does the (x - 2) come from, and where does the quadratic equation in step 3 come form?
The second question is this:
\(\displaystyle w^4 + 8w = 0\)
The problem specifies to find all of the real and imaginary solutions for the equation. I guess I'm supposed to solve this by factoring, but I don't see how factoring could be useful in this problem. The back of the book says the solutions are 0, 2, and +- i*sqrt(3).
Thanks.