Factor polynomial $$ b^{2}+3b-10 $$

$$ b^{2}+3b-10 = ( b-2 )( b+5 ) $$

Step 1: Identify constants $ \color{blue}{ b }$ and $\color{red}{ c }$. ( $ \color{blue}{ b }$ is a number in front of the $ x $ term and $ \color{red}{ c } $ is a constant). In our case:

$$ \color{blue}{ b = 3 } ~ \text{ and } ~ \color{red}{ c = -10 }$$

Now we must discover two numbers that sum up to $ \color{blue}{ 3 } $ and multiply to $ \color{red}{ -10 } $.

Step 2: Find out pairs of numbers with a product of $\color{red}{ c = -10 }$.

PRODUCT = -10
-1     10	1     -10
-2     5	2     -5

Step 3: Find out which pair sums up to $\color{blue}{ b = 3 }$

PRODUCT = -10 and SUM = 3
-1     10	1     -10
-2     5	2     -5

Step 4: Put -2 and 5 into placeholders to get factored form.

$$ \begin{aligned} b^{2}+3b-10 & = (x + \color{orangered}{\square} )(x + \color{orangered}{\square}) \\ b^{2}+3b-10 & = (x -2)(x + 5) \end{aligned} $$

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