Start by noting that the GCF is
and there is no GCF to factor out. Since we now have a trinomial where both the first term and last term are perfect squares in exactly the same way as in
Example 10. However, we cannot apply the perfect squares method to this problem because it worked when
Since our middle term is
we can be certain that it won’t be a perfect square.
Continuing on with the decision tree, our next option is to use the AC method. You might be tempted to rearrange the order of the terms, but that is unnecessary. In this case, and we need to come up with two factors of that add to be After a brief search, we conclude that those values are and The remainder of the factorization is: