Oliver Box Method

Oliver Askia October, 25, 2008
Math B Bronx Prep



Hello my name is Oliver I am going to walk you throught the steps of BOX method. My partner Brandon and I are going to guide you through the steps of solving the X value in an equation. The main goal is to find the X value and turn it into an equation that use the distributive property twice. The next steps will show you how as a diagram.


The First Step:

Here is the BOX that you will need in order to solve the equation:

x2 -10x+ 25



x2
25


--25Fill in the top left space with x2 and the bottom right with 25. Multiply both values to get 25x2 . now the space should look like this.


x2
25 ___x___ = 25x2 ___x___ = -10x


The next step is to find what multiples will have a product of 25x2 and a sum of -10x.



x2
-25
-5x
-5x

Now that you found your value (-5x) you can now began to solve the equation.

x2
-25
-5x2
-5x2 (-5x) x (-5x) = 25x2 (-5x) + (-5x) = -10x


Next step is for you to simplify the variables using the greatest common factor.

x2
-25
-5x2
-5x2 (-5x) x (-5x) = 25x2 (-5x) + (-5x) = -10x



x2 -10x+ 25 = ( x – 5)(x – 5)

1. y2 + 11y + 24 = ( y +8)( y+3)
2. c2 +6c + 5 = ( c + 5)(c + 1)
3. m2 + 10m + 9 = ( m + 9)( m + 1)
4. x2 + x – 6 = ( x + 3)(x – 2)
5. x2 + 2x + 1 = ( x + 1)( x + 1)








1. x2 + 7x - 30
2. 48x2 + 4x - 24
3.x2 - 31x - 140
4.2x2 - x - 6
5. -x2 - 2x + 3
6. x2 - 7x + 10
7. 10y4 + 50y3 - 500y2
8. y2 + 10y + 9
9. c2 + 6c + 5
10. x2 + 2 + 1