OakRoadSystems Articles Math Factoring A+B

Factoring the Sum of Squares

revised 21 Apr 2011 Copyright 20092012 by Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems Summary: The commonest algebra mistake is probably rewriting A+B as (A+B). You cant factor the sum of two squares on the reals! your teacher tells you. While thats generally true, there are some interesting exceptions. Sophie Germains Identity Higher Powers Complex Numbers Whats New Youre welcome to print copies of this page for your own use, and to link from your own Web pages to this page. But please dont make any electronic copies and publish them on your Web page or elsewhere.

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Since Eulers time at least, generations of students have tried to factor A+B as (A+B). The lure of this siren song is so strong that I see even calculus students commit this blunder. Generations of teachers have sighed despairingly and tried to get students to remember thata sum of two squares cant be factored on the reals. When explaining Solving Polynomial Equations I myself made that bare statement. But in correspondence in September 2009, Steve Schwartzman convinced me that I should say more. He proposed a sentence or two, but on the principle that a thing worth doing is worth overdoing, ... Its true that you cant factor A+Bon the reals if A and B are just simple variables, but if A and B have internal structure then the expression may be factorable after all, if you can find some other pattern. So its still true that a sum of squares cant be factored as a sum of squares on the reals. This page looks at some of the cases where a sum of squares can be factored using other techniques.

Sophie Germains Identity

The counterexample that Steve Schwartzman sent me in September 2009 is, as he told me, a form of Sophie Germains identity: x4 + 4y4 = (x + 2y + 2xy) (x + 2y 2xy)

Can you generalize this to a class of factorable sums of squares? Yes, you can. Notice that the factors have the form of (P+Q)(PQ), which of course multiplies to PQ. This suggests that, for factoring A+B, it might be fruitful to look at (A+B) minus something. Thats all well and good, but minuswhat? The key is that (A+B) = A+2AB+B.Comparing that to A+B, you see that theres an extra term of 2AB. So you have A + B = (A+B) 2AB That righthand side is factorable as a difference of squares,if 2AB is a perfect square. And thats our factorization:

A + B = (A + B + (2AB)) (A + B (2AB))
This identity is always true, but its useful for factoring only when 2AB is a perfect square. Example 1: Factor 4x4 + 625y4. Solution: Let A = 2x and B = 25y; then 2AB = 100xy is a perfect square and (2AB) = 10xy. 4x4 + 625y4 = (2x + 25y + 10xy) (2x + 25y 10xy)

Higher Powers
If A and B are themselves odd powers, you can use a common pattern to factor A+B. Example 2: (u) + (v) = u6 + v6. Can anything be done?
n n The answer is yes. As you may know, A +B can be factored on the reals if n is an odd integer:

An+Bn = (A+B) (An1 An2B + An3B2 ... ABn2 + Bn1) for n odd Youve probably learned the simplest case, n = 3: A+B = (A+B) (A AB + B) So the solution is to rewrite u6+v6 as the sum of two cubes: u6+v6 = (u)+(v) = (u+v) ( (u) uv + (v) ) = (u+v) (u4 uv + v4)
10 10 5 2 5 2 Example 3: x +1024y is a sum of squares, (x ) + (32y ) . But its also a sum of fifth powers,

x10+1024y10 = (x2)5 + (4y2)5 Use the above factorization for the sum of fifth powers: A5+B5 = (A+B) (A4 A3B + A2B2 AB3 + B4)

x10+1024y10 = (x2)5 + (4y2)5 =(x2+4y2) ( (x2)4 (x2)3(4y2) + (x2)2(4y2)2 (x2)(4y2)3 + (4y2)4 ) =(x2+4y2) ( x8 4x6y2 + 16x4y4 64x2y6 + 256y8)

Complex Numbers
Usually when you factor, you are looking for real factors. But if you allow complex factors then you can always factor A+B, like this: A + B = A (1B) =A (iB) = (A+iB) (AiB) Example 4: x+16 = (x+4i) (x4i) Example 5: 25p+49q = (5p) + (7q) = (5p+7iq) (5p7iq) Example 6: 16x4+81y4 = (4x) + (9y) = (4x+9iy) (4x9iy) This ones interesting because you can go further. (If not interested, feel free to skip this.) If only you can write i as a square in other words, if you can find the square root of i then the two factors become a sum of squares and a difference of squares. i is covered in some trig classes: the principal square root is (1+i)/2, and the other square root is minus that. Therefore, you can rewrite 9iy as (3 i y) = (3 ((1+i)/2) y) = ((3+3i)y/2), so you have a sum of squares and a difference of squares: 16x4+81y4 = [4x+9iy] [4x9iy] = [ (2x) + ((3+3i)y/2) ] [ (2x) ((3+3i)y/2) ] = [ 2x + i(3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x i(3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x + (3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x (3+3i)y/2 ] Why are there no new is in the second pair of factors? Because thats good old AB = (A+B) (AB). The first pair of factors can be simplified a bit: [ 2x + i(3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x i(3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x + (3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x (3+3i)y/2 ] = [ 2x + (3i3)y/2 ] [ 2x (3i3)y/2 ] [ 2x + (3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x (3+3i)y/2 ] = [ 2x (33i)y/2 ] [ 2x + (33i)y/2 ] [ 2x + (3+3i)y/2 ] [ 2x (3+3i)y/2 ] You can factor out the 1/2 and get rid of the inner parentheses: 16x4+81y4 = (1/2) [22 x (33i)y] [22 x + (33i)y] [22 x + (3+3i)y] [22 x (3+3i)y] = (1/2) (22 x 3y + 3iy) (22 x + 3y 3iy) (22 x + 3y + 3iy) (22 x 3y 3iy) And finally you can reorder the four trinomials to show the combinations of plus and minus signs: 16x4+81y4 = (1/2) (22 x + 3y + 3iy) (22 x + 3y 3iy) (22 x 3y + 3iy) (22 x 3y 3iy)