How do you factor $x^2 + x - 6$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2015-06-04T20:40:38

Notice that $3xx2 = 6$ and $3-2=1$ .

So

$(x+3)(x-2) = x^2+3x-2x-(3xx2)$

$= x^2+(3-2)x-(3xx2) = x^2+x-6$

This is an instance of the general form:

$(x+a)(x-b) = x^2+(a-b)x-ab$

How do you factor x^2 + x - 6x^2 + x - 6?