Mathematical Genius

[Ace]

Hey Tempers!
Ever since we've been going over factorisation in class, one of my friends (the mathematical genius in question) has been pulling out seemingly impossible factorisable equations out of thin air, claiming they're solvable. Mind you, factorisation is not difficult for myself, not even the ones he's given me so far, which have been proven to be solvable by me, to ensure he's not trolling. But today he brought down the shirtstorm and just wrote this down on a napkin:
2abc+a²b+ab²+b²c+bc²+c²a+ca²
I just say "what in the actual f*** is this?"
He responds: "Solve it!"
I got as far as this before getting stuck:
2abc+a²b+b²c+c²a+(ab+ac+bc)²

You can either help by staring into the question with hatred, or, if you know the answer, post it!
ACEDIT: If this should be moved to Blog posts, I'll PM a mod.

 

[Wabsta]

*stares*

 

[mameks]

I used Wolfram|Alpha...but it doesn't simplify it much xD

 

[CanadaX21]

[Removed]

 

[Ace]

This is 10th grade maths (or first year of Secondary Education for Brits). Gonna see if I can press the answer out of him...

 

[ProtoKun7]

It equals n.

 

[NoOneDies]

The answer

Spoiler

(a+b)(b+c)(a+c) Solve it and it matches the exercise

 

[Frogman]

I got 2*abc

 

[jan777]

Damn it. How do you get to that answer? -.-

 

[Jamstruth]

To find answers for things like that I think you need to use synthetic division. I say i think as generally I'm faced with stuff like that but with only 1 variable. e.g. x3+2x2+5x+2
Never tried factorising stuff with more than one variable in it and I'm at advanced higher (1st year Uni level). Or maybe I have and forgot, i'm good at that. Try asking him to expand (x+y)7 and see if he can do it in only a few lines of working. For a clue just say Pascal's Triangle. Its binomial theorem stuff which I've only learnt this year. If you want I'll show you how to do it and you can show off to him

Also i have no idea how any of you guys got that answer. Synthetic division won't work with more than one variable and that's the only method I know for factorising anything above an index of 3

 

[freestile]

When do you ever use this stuff?? I mean really. I hate math I swear. Thats all I need
to get my CIS degree and its killing me. Terrible and find alot of that stuff irrelevant and useless.
We only really use addition, math, subtraction and division and maybe a few other forms of that.
None of this algebraic, radians, sine, calculus, statistics etc etc. Wack.

 

[nryn99]

damn. i used to love math and be the best in class about this stuff. well 2 years is a long time. didn't have much math lately.

 

[freestile]

I hate math. Its the only thing I cant and dont like to do. I accel at computers,
science, everything else except the mathematics. Its just of no interest to me and very
boring so I have a hard time learning it, not to mention its hard to learn something you dont like.

 

[theplasmastorm]

I used Wolfram|Alpha...but it doesn't simplify it much xD

Try again

 

[mameks]

I used Wolfram|Alpha...but it doesn't simplify it much xD

Try again

Ah, I knew I was doing something wrong.

I did get to the right answer, eventually.

 

[mcp2]

There's a question similar to this on the STEP I paper (exam to get into Cambridge/Warwick).

 

[Zetta_x]

Heh =P

I love these things. I went through all elementary school fascinated by numbers and patterns, and here I am going to start my Masters in Mathematics and Statistics

Spoiler

 

[Zetta_x]

When do you ever use this stuff?? I mean really. I hate math I swear. Thats all I need
to get my CIS degree and its killing me. Terrible and find alot of that stuff irrelevant and useless.
We only really use addition, math, subtraction and division and maybe a few other forms of that.
None of this algebraic, radians, sine, calculus, statistics etc etc. Wack.

Mathematics is fundamentally based on logic. It's sad, because only pure math majors actually get to do mathematics that requires intense amounts of logic and all of it is abstract material.

As people going through math, you don't need to remember silly formulas or remember how to do things, what you want to get out of it is problem solving skills. If you were given an expression, like the one in the thread, how do you go about completing your task? The theory behind math is some of the most complicated things ever seen on earth and unless you are a 3rd or 4th year mathematics major, you will never have to see. Besides the point, the math you see is useful in a lot of fields except humanities stuff.