Subject: Maths
Name: Cath
Who are you: Student

I'm feeling really stupid.
What's 3x squared??
Thank you

PS - I'm not really thick - I got 96% in the maths GCSE

Hi Cath,

Your difficulty may be that the question is not clear. Is the expression 3x² or is it (3x)²? The latter expression can be written 3x 3x = 9x². Thus, for example if x = 5 then

3x² = 3 5² = 3 25 = 75, and
(3x)² = (3 5)² = 15² = 225

Penny