After reading and analyzing a word problem, what is the name of the letter that represents an unknown?

Need solving this second acceleration problem.

An energy drink company claims that its product increases students' memory levels. to support its claims, the company issues advertisements claiming that 8 out of 10 people (chosen randomly from across the country) who tried their product reported improved memory. the missing component in this study is a .

What is the expression in factored form? 3x^2 + 18x + 24 a. 3(x+2)(x+4) b. 3(x-2)(x+4) c. 3(x-2)(x-4) d. 3(x+2)(x-4)