Factor x^3-3x^2-4x+12

$x^{3} - 3 x^{2} - 4 x + 12$

Step 1

Factor out the greatest common factor from each group.

Group the first two terms and the last two terms.

$(x^{3} - 3 x^{2}) - 4 x + 12$

Factor out the greatest common factor (GCF) from each group.

$x^{2} (x - 3) - 4 (x - 3)$

Step 2

Factor the polynomial by factoring out the greatest common factor, $x - 3$ .

$(x - 3) (x^{2} - 4)$

Step 3

Rewrite $4$ as $2^{2}$ .

$(x - 3) (x^{2} - 2^{2})$

Step 4

Factor.

Since both terms are perfect squares, factor using the difference of squares formula, $a^{2} - b^{2} = (a + b) (a - b)$ where $a = x$ and $b = 2$ .

$(x - 3) ((x + 2) (x - 2))$

Remove unnecessary parentheses.

$(x - 3) (x + 2) (x - 2)$