Ok lets see! math help?

Question

Factor:

a^3 - 36a^2 - 9a +324 =

Answer 1

We use the factor theorem here;

Let...

P(a)=a^3 - 36a^2 - 9a +324

We want to find a value of 'a' such that P(a)=0. This is mainly trial and error in conjunction with a little bit of common sense (e.g. a=0 will obviously not work).

P(3)=0

Therefore a factor is (a-3)

P(a)

=a^3 - 36a^2 - 9a +324

=(a - 3)(a^2 - 33a -108)

The last step can be achieved through inspection, by looking at the coefficients in front of different degrees of x (you can also use long division for polynomials, but this is more arduous).

Answer 2

a = 3, get there on your own