How do you factor by grouping $12a^3+20a^2-48a$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2015-04-09T19:08:21

Factoring by grouping is not a method that is reasonable for an expression with 3 terms (perhaps a 4th term was intended(?))

This expression, $12a^3+20a^2-48a$ , can be factored fairly simply

Extract the obvious common factor
$(4a)(3a^2+5a-12)$
and from there
$(4a)(3a-4)(a+3)$

How do you factor by grouping 12a^3+20a^2-48a12a^3+20a^2-48a?