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Equivalent expressions SAT question

Math · Advanced Math · Hard · Answer it here, explanation included.

One of the factors of is , where  is a positive constant. What is the smallest possible value of ?

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ExplanationShow

The correct answer is . Since each term of the given expression, , has a factor of , the expression can be rewritten as , or . Since the values and have a sum of and a product of , the expression  can be factored as . Therefore, the given expression can be factored as . It follows that the factors of the given expression are , , , and . Of these factors, only and are of the form , where is a positive constant. Therefore, the possible values of are and . Thus, the smallest possible value of is .

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