Problema Solution
Andrew factored the expression as . But when Melissa applied the distributive law and multiplied out , she got ; thus, Andrew’s solution does not appear to check. Why is that? Please help Andrew to understand this better. Explain your reasoning and correctly factor the original expression, if possible. If the expression is prime, so state.
Answer provided by our tutors
Andrew cannot factor 54^3 into 5x(9x²) because 5x(9x²) = 45 x^3
So it looks like the only unit that can be factored out of the expression is 3
3(18^3 - 10x² + 5x)
Now, if there is a typo and 54^3 is actually 54x^3, then it would be:
3x(18x² - 10x + 5)