Factoring: F.O.I.L vs Box Method Comparison

[ramstin]

F.o.i.l or Box?

What is the better method the F.O.I.L method or the (I am not sure of the offical name) box method(where you make a box with 4 squares) to factor. Are there any other methods availible?

 

[[Quadratic]]

The FOIL method is just a special case of distributivity. You should read up on this as well as the field axioms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributivity

 

[Moo Of Doom]

What is the better method the F.O.I.L method or the (I am not sure of the offical name) box method(where you make a box with 4 squares) to factor. Are there any other methods availible?

Whichever one you can do faster. I use foil, because I usually do that in my head.