Question

(5x3 + 3)2 = (5x3)2 + (3)2 = 25x6 + 9 Determine if Louise’s answer is correct. Explain.

Answer 1

Louise’s answer is not correct. She is missing the term 30x3. When squaring a binomial, it is best to write the product of the binomial times itself. Then you can use the distributive property to multiply each term in the first binomial by each term in the second binomial. Louise also could have used the formula for a perfect square trinomial, which is found by squaring a binomial.