Thread: Factoring a polynomial?

Explain how to factor ? Thanks for the help!

You could work with and notice that when y=-1 the expression is zero so that y+1 is a factor.

Think of it as

Which is equal to .

That can be factored a lot more but I'll leave that to you.

You could also use the rational root theorem, although that would take a while.

Originally Posted by Mrdavid445

You could also use the rational root theorem, although that would take a while.

Yeah, it definitely would. I'd just factor it like I showed (or use a tutor's alternative solution, even though it's less intuitive).