text: factorization ? or something? ok i was doing a problem (0=x^2+4x+3) and another (0=x^2-7x+10) and i didnt want to do them qudratic formula style .  some kid said its easier to use factorization or factoring or something to do with the word factor. how can you so this factoring is another method of solving the problem.  in your first example, you could write:  0 = x^2 + 4x + 3  which is equivalent to:  0 = (x+1)(x+3)  <----  this is factoring the quadratic  once you have it factored, you can solve the problem by setting either factor equal to 0, such as:  0 = (x+1) which solves as x=(-1) 0 = (x+3) which solves as x=(-3)  if you plus -1 or -3 back into the original equation for x you'll see that they are indeed correct solutions.