Question

How do you divide `(x^2-2x-4) / (x-4)`?

Answer 1

Have a look at:
http://socratic.org/questions/how-do-you-divide-4x-3-2x-6-x-1#181284
Not exactly the same numbers but the method works: Look at contents of Explanation

Explanation:

The first thing to try is see if there are any factors that can be cancelled out. If not then it is back to the traditional ways of doing long division.

Factors of 4 are 1x4; 2x2. The sum of both these do not match the -2 in `-2x`. That means that you need to do it the hard way. Look at how I did it in the link I posted.