How do you factor $y= x^2 – 14x – 32$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-03-21T16:50:39

$color(blue)((x + 2) ( x -16)$ is the factorised form of the expression.

$y = x^2 - 14x - 32$

We can Split the Middle Term of this expression to factorise it.

In this technique, if we have to factorise an expression like $ax^2 + bx + c$ , we need to think of 2 numbers such that:

$N_1*N_2 = a*c = 1 * (-32) = -32$

AND

$N_1 +N_2 = b = -14$

After trying out a few numbers we get $N_1 = -16$ and $N_2 =2$

$(-16 ) * 2 = -32$ and $2 +(- 16)= -14$

$x^2 - color(green)(14x) - 32 =x^2 color(green)(- 16x + 2x) - 32$

$= x ( x -16) + 2 ( x - 16)$

$= color(blue)((x + 2) ( x -16)$

$color(blue)((x + 2) ( x -16)$ is the factorised form of the expression.

How do you factor y= x^2 – 14x – 32y= x^2 – 14x – 32?