Factorise $f(x) = x^3+4x^2 + 3x$ Not sure if this belongs here, but I'm slowly trudging through my studies for Math 1 and wondered if y'all could give feedback and/or corrections on the following factorisation question:
$$ \text{Factorise}: f(x) = x^3+4x^2+3x $$
Firstly, the GCD of the above is $x$:
$$x(x^2+4x+3)$$
Now take $x^2+4x+3$ and factorise that:
$$ x^2+4x+3 $$
Using the box method, enter the first term $x^2$ into the upper left corner, and the last term $3$ into the lower right corner.
\begin{array}{|c|c|}
 \hline 
    x^2 &   \\ 
 \hline
     & 3 \\ 
\hline
\end{array}
Then find HCF of 3:
$$3\\
1 | 3
$$
Enter the values $1x$ and $3x$ into the other two boxes:
\begin{array}{|c|c|}
 \hline 
    x^2 &  1x \\ 
 \hline
     3x& 3 \\ 
\hline
\end{array}
Now factorise the rows and columns:
$$ x^2 + 1x = x(x+1)\\
x^2 + 3x = x(x+3)\\
1x + 3=1(x+3)\\
3x +3=3(x+3)
 $$
Therefore:
$$x^2+4x+3=(x+1)(x+3)$$
It follows that:
$$f(x) = x^3+4x^2+3x=x(x+1)(x+3)$$
Any feedback on method and/or corrections are gladly accepted! Be gentle, I'm a struggling student you know...

Well done. And for those of us unaware of the box method, the following would have also worked: $$x^2+4x+3=x^2+4x+4-1=(x+2)^2-1=(x+2-1)(x+2+1)=(x+1)(x+3)$$
