Factoring Special Cases

Mathematics — Second Preparatory

Repeating the factoring

An expression may need to be factored more than once.
If one of the factors is again a difference of two squares, we factor it in the same way.
For example, 16x⁴ − 1 = (4x²)² − 1² = (4x² − 1)(4x² + 1).
Then 4x² − 1 = (2x)² − 1² = (2x − 1)(2x + 1).
The factor 4x² + 1 is a sum of squares and does not factor into real factors.

Factoring Special Cases · 3 / 6