Factorise 12x^2 - 20x + 3

We know our answer is going to look like this: (ax + b)(cx + d).
First we can split our original equation in order to make it easy to simplify. As we know that 12 multiplied by 3 is equal to 36 we can split 20x into: - 18x - 2x, as they also multiply to make 36. So from this we have: 12x2 - 18x - 2x + 3.
We can now take 6x out of the first half of the equation: 6x(2x - 3) - 2x + 3. We can then make the second half look like the same form as the first half: 6x(2x - 3) - 1(2x - 3) we then have our answer: (2x - 3)(6x - 1).

EG
Answered by Emma G. Maths tutor

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