Finding factors

Can you find the hidden factors which multiply together to produce each quadratic expression?
Exploring and noticing Working systematically Conjecturing and generalising Visualising and representing Reasoning, convincing and proving
Being curious Being resourceful Being resilient Being collaborative



The interactivity below is similar to the one used in Missing Multipliers so you may wish to work on that first.

In the multiplication grid below, the headings and the answers have been hidden. Each of the headings is an expression of the form $x + a$ where $a$ is an integer between $-5$ and $5$. By revealing some of the answers, can you work out what each heading must be? 

 

Drag the green and purple labels onto the headers to make the correct expressions.



What is the smallest number of answers you need to reveal in order to work out the missing headers?

Once you've developed strategies for finding the factors in the interactivity above, you might like to have a go at solving some bigger grids which include coefficients of $x$ greater than 1 in the row and column headings:

Six by six grid

Eight by eight grid

Ten by ten grid

 

You may also be interested in the other problems in our Working backwards, leaping forwards Feature.