FACTORING AND SPECIAL PRODUCTS

There are certain types of products that must be memorized.

 Difference of two squares

The square of the first term minus the square of the second term is equal to the product of the
sum and difference of the two terms.

(first term)2 – (second term)2 = (first term + second term)(first term – second term)

a2 – b2 = (a + b)(a – b)

Note that a 2  a and b2  b .

If the original problem does not have an explicit base with an exponent of 2, use the positive
square root of the expression to find the first and second terms. For example if 4x 2 is given, the
positive square root of 4x2, ( 4x 2 ) is 2x, so that we write (2x)2.

Example 1

Factor each polynomial.

(a) 9x2 – 25 (b) 16x4 – 81 (c) 2v2 - 72u2

Solution:
(a)
a b
9x2 – 25 = (3x)2 – (5)2 = (3x – 5)(3x + 5)
9x 2 = 3x 25 =5

(b) a b
16x4 – 81 = (4x2)2 – (9)2 = (4x2 + 9)(4x2 – 9)
16 x  4 x
4 2
81  9

But 4x2 – 9 is also difference of two squares so that

a b 4x2 – 9 = (2x)2 – (3)2 = (2x + 3)(2x – 3)

4x 2 = 2x 9 3

Substituting we have, 16x4 – 81 = (4x2 + 9) (2x + 3)(2x – 3)

(c) 2v2 - 72u2 = 2(v2 – 36u2) = 2[(v)2 – (6u)2] = 2(v + 6u)(v – 6u)

Problem 1
a) x2 – 1 b) x2 – y2 c) 4x2 – y2

d) m4 –16 e) 9 – y6 f) 25x2 – 4a2

g) 100 – 49a6 h) s2 - 36 i) y2 – 49

j) 3a2 – 12x2 k) (2x + 3)2 – y2 l) (a+ b)2 – (a – b)2

m) x3 – x n) 3ax2 – 3ay2 o) 100a2 – 64b2

p) s64 –t22 q) a4 – b2 r) x4 – 4y4

s) 9x2 – 64y2 t) 2x2 – 2y2 u) 44x4 – 99y4

v) 3a3 – 12a w) a4 – b4 x) 16y12 – 1

 Factoring perfect squares

If the middle term of a trinomial is equal to twice the product of the positive square root of the
first term and the last terms, then that trinomial is a perfect square, and it is equal to the square of
the sum or difference of the positive square root of the first and last terms.

a2 + 2ab + b2 = (a + b)2

a2 - 2ab + b2 = (a - b)2

Note that middle term = twice the product of a 2  a and b2  b = 2ab.

Example

Factor each polynomial.

(a) x2 – 10x + 25 (b) 16x2 + 24x + 9

Solution:
(a) x 2  x and 25 = 5 so that,
middle term = 2(x)(5) = 10x this match with the middle term of the original problem.

x2 – 10x + 25 = (x – 5)2

(b) 16 x2  4 x and 9  3 so that,

middle term = 2(4x)(3) = 24x this match with the middle term of the original problem.

16x2 + 24x + 9 = (4x + 3)2

Problem

Factor each polynomial.

a) 9x2 – 30xy + 25y2 b) 4x2 + 36x + 81 c) x2 + 24x + 144

d) 16x2 – 40xy + 25y2 e) 16x2 + 56x + 49 f) x2 + 18x + 81

Sum and Difference of two cubes

The sum of two cubes is expressed as a3 + b3 = (first term)3 + (second term)3

Sum of two cubes

= [first term + second term][(first term)2 – (first term)(second term) + (second term)2]

In general,

a3 + b3 = (a + b)(a2 – ab + b2)

The difference of two cubes is expressed as a3 - b3 = (first term)3 - (second term)3

Difference of two cubes

= [first term - second term][(first term)2 + (first term)(second term) + (second term)2]

In general,

a3 - b3 = (a - b)(a2 + ab + b2)

Note that 3
a3  a and 3
b3  b .
If the original problem does not have an explicit base with an exponent of 3, use the cube root of
the expression to find the first and second terms. For example if 8x3 is given, the cube root of
8x3, ( 3 8x3 ) is 2x, so that we write (2x)3.

Example

Factor each polynomial.

(a) 8x3 – 27 (b) 64x6 + 1

Solution:
a b a2 ab b2
(a) 3
8x3 = 2x, and 3
27  3 so that, 2x 3 2
(2x) = 4x2 (2x)(3) = 6x (3)2 = 9

8x3 – 27 = (2x)3 – (3)3 = (2x – 3)[(2x)2 + (2x)(3) + (3)2]

= (2x – 3)(4x2 + 6x + 9)

a b a2 ab b2
(b) 3
64 x6  4 x2 , and 3 1  1 so that,
4x2 1 (4x2)2 = 16x4 2
(4x )(1) = 4x2 (1)2 = 1
64x6 + 1 = (4x2)3 + (1)3 = (4x2 + 1)[(4x2)2 - (4x2)(1) + (1)2]

= (4x2 + 1)(16x4 - 4x2 + 1)

Problem 2
a b a2 ab b2
Factor each polynomial with the aid of this chart.

a) x3 – 1 b) x3 + y3 c) 27x3 – y3

d) m3 – 216 e) 27 – y3 f) 125x3 + 8a3

g) 1000 + 27a3 h) s3 - 64 i) y3 + 125

j) 3a3 – 81x2 k) (2x + 3)3 – y3 l) r3 + 8b3

m) x4 + x n) 3ax3 – 3ay3 o) 54a3 – 128b3

p) s6 – t3 q) 128a3 – 2b3 r) x3 + 64y6

s) 81x3 + 64y3 t) 2x3 – 2y3 u) 81x3 – 3y3

 Strategic
Intervention
Rational Expressions, Equations, and Functions

Simplifying Rational Expressions

 Rational Expressions

Rational Expressions
Definition:

Simplifying:
Example:

Solution:
Additional Example 1:

Solution:

Additional Example 2:

Solution:
Additional Example 3:

Solution:

Additional Example 4:
Solution:
Simplify the following rational expressions. If the expression cannot be simplified any further, then simply
rewrite the original expression.

15
1.
25
30
2. 
36
48
3. 
64
26
4.
39

60 x 2 y 5
5.
48 x 5 y 3

49a 4b9
6. 
56a 7 b10

5 x3  x  y 
7

7. 
10 x5  x  y 
3

8c 6  c  d 
2

8.
12c  c  d 
3

x y
9.
yx

cd
10.
d c

2  a  b  c  d 
11.
6 b  a 

12  x  y  w  z 
12. 
6  z  w x  y 

4x  8
13.
x2

x3
14.
5 x  15

x5
15.
x  25
2

x3
16.
x2  9

a 2  b2
17.
ab

x 2  16
18.
x4
 49  c 2
19.
c 2  9c  18

x 2  11x  10
20.
100  x 2

x 2  2 x  15
21.
x 2  10 x  21

m2  m  20
22.
m2  m  30

x2  5x  6
23.
x 2  x  12

x 2  7 x  12
24.
x 2  7 x  30

x 2  8 x  12
25.
x 2  13x  42

x 2  7 x  10
26.
x 2  7 x  10

x 2  36
27.
x  12 x  36
2

x2  8x  16
28.
x2  16

9 x  36
29.
x2  4 x

7 x 2  14 x
30.
x2

10 x 2  30 x
31.
5 x 2  10 x

6 x2  8x
32.
9 x3  12 x 2

x2  7 x  6
33.
8x2  8x

4 x 2  20 x
34.
x2  4 x  5

6 x 2  24 x  18
35.
4 x 2  8 x  60

5x2  10 x  40
36.
10 x2  30 x  20

4 x 2  17 x  15
37.
5 x 2  13x  6
 4 x 2  8 x  21
38.
8 x 2  24 x  14

6 x2  5x  4
39.
10 x 2  9 x  2

15x2  4 x  4
40.
5x2  22 x  8

8x2  30 x  7
41.
16 x2  1

9 x 2  25
42.
6 x 2  13x  5

m3  m2  m  1
43.
m3  m  m2 n  n

ax  ay  bx  by
44.
ax  ay  2 x  2 y

xy  3x  2 y  6
45.
yz  3z  5 y  15

ab  5a  2b  10
46.
a 2 b  4b  5a 2  20

x3  8
47.
x2

x5
48.
x  125
3

x3  27
49.
x 2  3x  9

x3  1
50.
x2  x  1
 Strategic

Intervetion
____________________________________________
a
Ratio of a to b   a:b
b

Simplifying Ratios:  denominators cannot be zero 1 m = 100 cm 12 in = 1 ft

16 oz= 1 lb 3 ft = 1 yd
 must have the same units
5, 280 ft = 1 mi
 must be simplified 1,760 yd = 1 mi

12cm 6ft 24oz 14ft 440yd

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
4m 18in 2lb 6yd 2mi

6. The area of a rectangle is 108 cm2. 7. If the measures of the angles in a triangle
The ratio of the width to the length is 3:4. have the ratio of 4:5:6, classify the triangle
Find the length and the width. as right, obtuse or acute.

BD BE DE BE
8. In the diagram,  . Find BA and BD. 9. In the diagram,  . Find AC.
DA EC AC BC
 The ____________________ of two positive numbers a
Geometric and b is the positive number x that satisfies:
Mean  so x 2  ab

11. Find the Geometric Mean of:

a. 4 and 9 b. 16 and 18 c. 6 and 20 d. 8 is the geometric mean of 4 and what
number?

Notes: 6.2 Use Proportions to Solve Geometry Problems

________________________________________
____

a c
Proportion: equation that equates two ratios 
b d
Properties:
a. Cross Products b. Reciprocal
a c a c
If  , then If  , then
b d b d

a c a a c
c. If  , then  . d. If  , then
b d c b d
ab
 .
b

Practice: Complete each statement.

6 5 6 x y x
1. If  , then  . 2. If  , then  .
x y 5 12 26 y

x 7 x4 9 x 11
3. If  , then  . 4. If  , then  .
4 y 4 2 y 2
 Decide whether the statement is True or False.
x 8 y 3 x 8 3 y
5. If  , then  . 6. If  , then  . 7. If
y 3 x 8 y 3 x 8
x 8 x 3
 , then  .
y 3 8 y

x 8 x y x 8 x8 y3
8. If  , then  . 9. If  , then  .
y 3 8 3 y 3 8 3

Solve for x.
x 9 4 3 5 3
10.  11.  12. 
6 24 y 3 y 3 2y  7 y  3

Solve for the variable.

13. MN:MO is 3:4 14. PQR side lengths: STU side lengths is 1:3
S P
M
x x 5
9
O R Q
12
N
U
36 T

Use the diagram and the given information to find the unknown length.
AB AE AB AE
15. Given  , find BC. 16. Given  , find BC.
BC ED BC ED

.
Notes: 6.3 Use Similar Polygons

________________________________________
____

Similar Polygons: SYMBOL for SIMILAR: ________

Corresponding angles are _____________________________________________

Corresponding sides are _______________________________________________

Writing Similarity Statements:

Corresponding <’s:

Proportional Sides:

A BC
  
XYZ

If 2 polygons are _____________, then the ratio of the lengths

of 2 corresponding sides is called the ___________________.

What is the scale factor of ∆ABC to ∆XYZ? ________________

Practice:

1.) If polygon LMNO ~HIJK , completing proportions and congruence

statements.

a. M  __?__ b. K  __?__ c. N  __?__ Hint: Draw a

diagram!!

MN ? HK HI IJ HK
d.  e.  f. 
IJ JK ? LM MN ?

2.) In the diagram, polygon ABCD ~ GHIJ.

 8 y
A B G H

5.5
11 11
x
J I
8
D C
x
a. Find the scale factor of polygon b. Find the scale factor of polygon
ABCD to polygon GHIJ. GHIJ to polygon ABCD.

c. Find the values of x and y. d. Find the perimeter of each polygon.

e. Find the ratio to the perimeter of ABCD to perimeter of GHIJ.

If 2 polygons are ___________, then the ratio of their

perimeters is equal to the ratios of their ___________.

3.) The ratio of one side of ∆ABC to the corresponding side of similar ∆DEF is
3:5. The perimeter of ∆DEF is 48in. What is the perimeter of ∆ABC?
 Strategic

Intervention
 Measures of Variability
I. Range

The range for a set of data items is the difference between the largest and smallest
values. Although the range is the easiest of the numerical measures of variability
to compute, it is not widely used because it is based on only two of the items in the
data set and thus is influenced too much by extreme data values.

II. Interquartile Range

A form of the range that avoids the dependence on extreme values in the data set is
the interquartile range (IQR), or Q-spread. This descriptive measure of variability
is simply the difference between the third quartile (Q3 ) , or 75%-tile data item, and
the first quartile (Q1 ) , or 25%-tile data item. In effect, it is showing the range for
the middle 50% of the data and, as such, is not affected by the extreme values in the
3
data set. To calculate Q3 , let i  N where N is the number of data items. If i is
4
not an integer, then the next integer greater than i denotes the position of the 75%-tile;
if i is an integer, then the 75%-tile is the average of the data values in positions i and
1
i + 1. Similarly, to calculate Q1 , let i  N and follow the same guidelines as above.
4

Example 1: Given the following data: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29. Find the IQR.

3
N = 10  i  (10)  7.5  Q3 is the 8th data item  Q3  19. Next,
4
1
i (10) = 2.5  Q1 is the 3rd data item  Q1  5 . Therefore, IQR = 19-5 = 14.
4

Example 2: Given the following data: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19. Find the IQR.

3
N 8i  (8)  6  Q3 is the average of the data values in the 6th and 7th
4
13  17 1
positions  Q3   15. Next, i  (8)  2  Q1 is the average of the
2 4
35
values in the 2nd and 3rd positions  Q1   4. Therefore, IQR = 15-4 = 11.
2

III. Average Absolute Deviation from the Mean

Obviously, there are limitations in using range or interquartile range as measures of

variability. It would seem reasonable that any useful measure of variability should
measure the spread around the mean since the mean is the “balance point” of a
distribution. If you find the difference between each data item and the mean, you
will get negative values for items that are less than the mean and positive values for
items greater than the mean. If you then sum up all of these differences, you will get
zero; this illustrates a special property of the mean. However, by taking the absolute
 value of each difference, you will get the distance of each item from the mean, and
the sum of these distances would measure the total spread around the mean. If you
were to include more data items, equally spread around the mean, you would
increase the total of the distances even though the new distribution might be less
variable. Therefore, it is important to divide the total absolute deviation by the
number of data items; this will give an average absolute deviation from the mean.

X X
Average Absolute Deviation =
N

This average absolute deviation gives the average distance of any data item from the
mean and thus is a good measure of spread.

IV. Standard Deviation

If you were to calculate the average absolute deviation of a distribution using a value
other than the mean, you could possibly get a smaller average absolute deviation.
This result is one of the reasons that the average absolute deviation is not the best
measure of variability. Instead, calculate the average of the squared differences from
the mean; this is the variance of a distribution. If you were to calculate the average
of the squared differences of a distribution by using a value other than the mean,
you would always get a larger value. The mean is the one number that minimizes
the average of the squared differences in a distribution.

( X  X ) 2
Variance =   2
N

There are still two slight inconveniences in using variance as our measure of
variability. First, variance does not give an estimate of the distance of a typical data
from the mean; it is too big. Second, if the data items have a unit of measurement
associated with them, then the variance would not have the same unit of measure-
ment; it would have square units. By taking the square root of variance, we get
standard deviation, which is the measure of variability that we want.

2
( X  X ) 2
Standard Deviation =  
N

The standard deviation can be calculated in an alternative way.

X 2 2
Standard Deviation =   X
N

Example: Given the following histogram, estimate the standard deviation.

%/cig

2 30%
40%
(.5) 20%
10%
 0
0 10 20 40 80
Number of cigarettes

Recall that the mean of a histogram can be determined by calculating a “weighted”

average using the midpoints of the class intervals and the areas of the blocks. Thus,
X  .1(5)  .3(15)  .4(30)  .2(60)  .5  4.5  12  12  29 cigarettes. The standard
deviation of a histogram can also be calculated using the midpoints of the class
interval, the area of the blocks, and the “weighted” average.

Using the first formula, we get:

.1(5  29) 2  .3(15  29) 2  .4(30  29) 2  .2(60  29) 2

SD     17.6 cig
.1  .3  .4  .2

Using the second formula, we get:

.1(5 2 )  .3(15 2 )  .4(30 2 )  .2(60 2 )

SD     29 2  17.6 cig
.1  .3  .4  .2

Important Note:

Some textbooks will give the following formulas for variance and standard deviation:

2
2( X  X ) 2 X 2  N X
Variance = s  
N 1 N 1

2
( X  X ) 2 X 2  N X
Standard Deviation = s  
N 1 N 1

These formulas should be used when N data items are taken as a sample from a
larger population in which the variance and standard deviation of that population are
unknown. These formulas give good approximations of the variance and standard
deviation of the population.

Practice Sheet – Measures of Variability

I. The following are 25 final averages in a math class:

46 64 72 79 89
49 66 74 79 91
53 66 75 80 94
60 67 76 83 95
61 71 79 88 98

(1) What is the range?

 (2) What is the interquartile range?

II. Given the following data: 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 18.

(1) What is the mean?

(2) What is the average absolute deviation from the mean?
(3) What is the median?
(4) What is the average absolute deviation from the median?
(5) What is the standard deviation?
(6) Add 8 to each item. What is the new SD?
(7) Subtract 7 from each item. What is the new SD?
(8) Multiply each item by 7. What is the new SD?
(9) Divide each item by 5. What is the new SD?