When Is Something Not Factorable?

The most reliable way I can think of to find out if a polynomial is factorable or not is to plug it into your calculator, and find your zeroes. If those zeroes are weird long decimals (or don't exist), then you probably can't factor it. Then, you'd have to use the quadratic formula.

What does not Factorable mean?

We could say that x2−2x−2 is not factorable over the rational numbers. That is it has no factors whose coefficients are rational numbers. However it is factorable if you allow irrational coefficients. ... In addition, if Δ is a perfect square (and a,b,c are rational) then it can be factored over the rationals.

How do you know if an equation can be factored?

BIG IDEA A quadratic expression with integer coefficients is factorable over the integers if and only if its discriminant is a perfect square.