Sarah was explaining her first step in factoring, but made an error in her explanation.
Factor: 5x² - 4x - 9
Sarah said, "I need to find factors of -9 that add to -4"
What was the error in her thought process?



Answer :

Answer:

-9

Step-by-step explanation:

her error was that -9 can't add up to -4

Answer:

  she needs to find factors of -45 that add to -4

Step-by-step explanation:

You want to know the error involved when looking for factors of 5x²-4x-9 by considering only factors of -9.

Quadratic factors

Consider the product of factors (ax +b)(x +d):

  (ax+b)(x +d) = ax² +adx +bx +bd = ax² +(ad+b)x +bd

You will notice the two parts of the sum that is the middle term coefficient have the product abd, which is also the product of the first and last coefficients.

Sarah needs to be looking for factors of (5)(-9) = -45 that have a sum of -4.

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Additional comment

The factors Sarah needs are -9 and 5. These will give Sarah the equation ...

  5x² -9x +5x -9

which can be factored pairwise to ...

  x(5x -9) +1(5x -9) = (x +1)(5x -9)