Question

Which statement is true about a model of a prime polynomial?

It cannot be modeled with a rectangle.
It can be modeled with a square.
It cannot be modeled with all positive tiles.
It can only be modeled with an odd number of tiles. please help me

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

It cannot be modeled with a rectangle.

Explanation:

When using area tiles to represent polynomials, we arrange the tiles into a rectangle in order to find the factors of the polynomial.

Since the area of a rectangle is found by multiplying length and width, if we find the "length" and "width" of the polynomial rectangle, we have the factors that multiply to make up that polynomial.

However, if a polynomial is prime, its only factors are 1 and itself.  This means the "length" would be the polynomial itself, and the "width" would be 1.  This means we cannot arrange the polynomial into a rectangle.