How do you factor $x^2-10x-24$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-03-05T06:54:04

Factors are $(x-12)(x+2)$

To factorize $ax^2+bx+c=0$ , we split $ac$ into two factors, whose sum is $b$ .

In the polynomial $x^2−10x−24$ , the product is $-24$ and hence such factors would be $-12$ and $2$ . Hence splitting middle term this way, we get

$x^2−10x−24=x^2−12x+2x−24$ i.e.

$x(x-12)+2(x-12)$ or

$(x-12)(x+2)$

How do you factor x^2-10x-24x^2-10x-24?