Question

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

Answer 1

Find factors of `-6`, then add them up individually to find the ones that add to `-1` and you'll get to `(x-3)(x+2)`

Explanation:

Let's start with the original:

`x^2-x-6`

The way to factor something is to 2 numbers that will add up to `-1` but multiply to `-6`. To do that, let's think about what we need to multiply to get to `-6` - and that is (I'll put them in a list):

`(1*-6), (-1*6), (2*-3), (-2*3)`.

If we add those up individually we get

`-5, 5,-1,1`

So we can use the `(2,-3)` like this

`(x-3)(x+2)`

and we're done.