Question

The expansion of the binomial product `(x-a)(x-b) = x^2 - 11x + 18`, determine the values for both `a` and `b`?

Answer 1

`a=` either 9 or 2. `b=` the other value (either 2 or 9)

Explanation:

One way we can do this is to see that

`-axx-b=18`

and

`-a-b=-11`

See that with the first equation, we don't have many iterations of possible solutions to run through before we get to one of the values being `9` and the other being `2` (we verify them using the second equation).