Chapter 11
Figuring on Factoring
IN THIS CHAPTER
Determining the greatest common factor (GCF)
Factoring all at once or in stages
Using factors to reduce algebraic fractions
You may believe in the bigger-is-better philosophy, which can apply to salaries, cookies, or houses, but it doesn’t really work for algebra. For the most part, the opposite is true in algebra: Smaller numbers are easier and more comfortable to deal with than larger numbers.
In this chapter, you discover how to get to those smaller-is-better terms. You find out the basics of factoring and how factoring is related to division. The factoring patterns you see here carry over somewhat in more complicated expressions.
Factoring out the Greatest Common Factor
Factoring is another way of saying, “Rewrite this so everything is all multiplied together.” You usually start out with two or more terms and have to determine how to rewrite them so they’re all multiplied together in some way or another. And, oh yes, the two expressions have to be equal! Why all this fuss? You rewrite expressions as products — keeping the new results equivalent to the old — so that you can perform operations on the results. Fractions reduce ...
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