Factoring a third power

[MrJoe2000]

Hi, I'm looking to factor: x^3 + 3x^2 + 5

Can anyone help me with this problem and maybe a general rule for this. It's been a long long time since I needed to do this.

 

[mmm4444bot]

Factoring a third power


x^3 + 3x^2 + 5

Hi.

That expression is not called a third power.

It is called a third-degree polynomial.

There is no general factoring rule for factoring it, at the intermediate-algebra level.

This particular polynomial does not factor nicely at all. (I used software, to look at the roots.)

Did somebody ask you to factor it? If not, then please tell us what you are working on. :cool:

 

[MrJoe2000]

Thanks for the heads up. That is actually the demoninator of an integration problem. I thought I might be able to factor out a portion of that polynomial and then it would nicely cancel out with the numerator.

 

[mmm4444bot]

Ah, that's good thinking, even though there is no cancellation in this case.

I'm guessing that your numerator is less than degree three. If so, we could have determined that the numerator is not a factor of the denominator by using longhand polynomial division, to confirm that the remainder is non-zero, after dividing the numerator into the denominator.