Question

What are the factors of the quadratic expression 49x2 + 56x + 16?

Answer 1

Given the following expression:

$49x^2+56x+16$

You can follow the steps shown below in order to factor it:

1. Identify if the leading coefficient is 1. In this case, you can see that this is:

$a=49$

So it is not 1.

2. Identify if you have a Greatest Common Factor that can be factor out. In this case you don't have it.

3. Notice that the expression has this form:

$ax^2+bx+c$

Rewrite the expression as following:

$=(7x)^2+28x+28x+(4)^2$

4. Simplify it by factoring out the common factors:

$7x(7x+4)+4(7x+4)$

5. Rewriting it in factor form, you get:

$(7x+4)(7x+4)=(7x+4)^2$

The answer is: Third option.