Why might algebra tiles not be a good tool to use to factor x2 + 18x + 80? Explain.

Answer:

Algebra tiles would not be a good tool because the numbers in the trinomial are quite large. Factoring x^2 + 18x + 80 would require one x^2 tile, 18 x-tiles, and 80 unit tiles, for a total of 99 tiles. Managing and arranging that many tiles into a rectangle would be time-consuming and difficult to fit in a workspace.