Topic: Special Products

Prerequisite Concepts: Multiplication and Division of Polynomials

About the Lesson: This is a very important lesson. The applications come much later but the skills will always be useful from here
on.
Objectives:
In this lesson, you are expected to: find algebraically the
1. Product of a sum and difference of two terms
2. Square of a binomial
3. Cube of a binomial
4. Product of a binomial and a trinomial

A. Product of a sum and difference of two terms

I. Activity
Use FOIL method to find the product of the following:
a. (x + 1) (x 1) =
b. (x + 3) (x 3) =
c. (2x 1) (2x + 1) =
d. (2x 3) (2x + 3) =

II. Questions to Ponder

1. What are the products?
2. What is the common characteristic of the factors in the activity?
3. Is there a pattern for the products for these kinds of factors? Give the rule.

Description of the product of a sum and difference:

In words: The product of the sum and the difference of the same two terms is the difference of their squares.
Algebraically: (a+b)(a-b) = a2 - b2
Example: (x+2)(x-2) = x2 - 22 = x2 - 4

I. Exercises
Find the product of each of the following:
1. (x 5) (x + 5) 6. (x2 10)(x2 + 10)
2. (x + 2) (x 2) 7. (4xy + 3z3) (4xy 3z3)
3. (3x 1) (3x + 1) 8. (3x3 4)(3x3 + 4)
4. (2x + 3) (2x 3) 9. [(x + y) - 1] [(x + y) + 1]
5. (x + y2) (x y2) 10. ((2x + y) z) ((2x + y) + z)
B. Square of a binomial
Activity
Use the FOIL method; find the product of the following:
a. (x + 3) (x + 3) =
b. (x 2) (x 2) =
c. (2x + 1) (2x + 1) =
d. (2x 1) (2x 1) =
Description of the square of a Binomial:
In words: Square the first term, add twice the product of the terms, add the square of the last term.
Algebraically: (a+b) 2 = a2 + 2ab + b2 , (a-b) 2 = a2 - 2ab + b2
2 2
Example: (x + 4) = x + 8x + 16 , (x - 3) 2 = x2 - 6x + 9

II. Exercises
Find the squares of the following binomials.
1. (x + 5)2 =
2. (x - 5)2 =
2
3. (x + 4) =
2
4. (x 4) =
5. (2x + 3)2 =
6. (3x - 2)2 =
7. (4 5x)2 =
2
8. (1 + 9x) =
9. (x2 + 3y)2 =
3 2 2
10. (3x 4y ) =
C. Sum and difference of two cubes
Find the product of the following using distributive method:
a. (x + 5) (x2 - 5x +25) =
b. (y + 2) (y2 - 2x + 4) =
c. (x - 5) (x2 + 5x +25) =
d. (y - 2) (y2 + 2x + 4) =

Sum and difference of two cubes:

In words: Square the first term, add twice the product of the terms, add the square of the last term.
Algebraically: (a-b) ( a2 + ab + b2) = a3 - b3 , (a+b) ( a2 - ab + b2) = a3 + b3
2 3
Example: (x - 4) (x + 4x + 16) = x + 64 , (x + 3) ( x2 - 3x + 9) = x3 - 27

II. Exercises
Find the Sum and difference of two cubes.
1. (3x + 4)(9x2 12x + 16) =
2. (2x + 5)(4x2 10x + 25) =
3. (x + 10)(x2 10x + 100) =
2
4. (x - 6)( x + 6x + 36) =
5. (3x - 4)( 9x2 + 12x + 16) =
6. (p + 3)(p2 - 3p + 9) =
2
7. (2f - 2)(4f + 4f + 4) =
8. (g - 2)(g2 + 2g + 4) =
2
9. (3h + 2)(h - 6h + 4) =
2
10. (h - 1)(h + h + 1) =
D. Cube of binomial
Find the expanded form of the following expressions:
(a + b) 3 =

(a - b) 3 =

Cube of binomial
In words: Find the cube of each term to get the first term and the last term of the product. Multiply 3 to the square of the
first term and also multiply 3 to the first term times the square of the second term to get the two middle terms of the product.
Formula: (a + b)3 = ( a3 + 3a2b + 3ab2 + b3) , (a - b)3 = (a3 - 3a2b + 3ab2 - b3)
3 3 2
Example: (2a + 3) = 8a + 36a + 54a + 27 , (3x - 5y) 3 = 27x3 - 135x2 + 225xy2 125y3

1. (3x - 4) 3 =
2. (2x - 5)3 =
3. (x - 10) 3 =
4. (x + 6) 3 =
5. (x - 1) 3 =
6. (p + 2) 3 =
7. (3x - 4) 3 =
8. (2p + 3) 3 =
9. (3x - 1) 3 =
10. (p + 1) 3 =