Essential Ideas for Section 6.2

COMMON FACTOR; look to see if terms share a common factor.

PROCEDURE FOR FACTORING TRINOMIALS To factor a trinomial:
1.Find the factors of the second-degree term, and set up the binomials.
2.Find the factors of the constant term, and consider all possible binomials (mentally). Think of the factors that will form a rectangle.
3.Determine the factors that yield the correct middle term. If no pair of factors produces the correct full product, then the trinomial is not factorable using integers. This type of factoring is called FOIL.