Polynomials and factoring impact our day-to-to lives.
Jenn, Founder Calcworkshop®, 15+ Years Experience (Licensed & Certified Teacher)
Don’t believe me?
The next time you go outside look up at a building and notice its structure. Or take a walk along a sidewalk or patio and observe how the stones lie upon the ground. Admire a picture frame, and see the sharp, precise corners. Look up in the sky and watch the birds fly overhead.
All of these real-world encounters can be can be defined mathematically using polynomial factoring! And we’re going to learn how to solve these types of factoring applications.
Awesome!
And these factoring applications help us to explain the world around us, as ck-12 nicely states. We can measure the time it takes for a ball to hit the ground after being thrown. We can calculate the size of the perfect rug that will lay in our living room. Or better understand how to play our most favorite video games.
Finding Distances and Time Traveled using Polynomials
So, together we are going to look at factoring in the real world, and see how to solve word problems involving area and perimeter, height, speed, and distance.
But it is important to note that while these problems lead to polynomial equations that can be solved by factoring, not all solutions will satisfy the given conditions.
What this means, is that we may have to discard solutions that don’t make sense.
For example, we know that a negative number cannot represent the length of a rectangle or the distance a car travels, so we will need to make sure that we always check our solutions to ensure their reasonableness.
Factoring Word Problems (How-To) – Video
Get access to all the courses and over 450 HD videos with your subscription
Monthly and Yearly Plans Available
Still wondering if CalcWorkshop is right for you?
Take a Tour and find out how a membership can take the struggle out of learning math.