How do you factor the trinomial $p^2 - 2p + 1$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-02-02T05:34:26

$p^2-2p+1=(p-1)^2$

The square of a binomial can be written as
$(a +- b)^2 = a^2 +-2ab + b^2$
(Try expanding the left side to verify this)

Then, in this case, we have

$p^2-2p+1 = p^2-2*p*1+1^2 = (p-1)^2$

How do you factor the trinomial p^2 - 2p + 1 p^2 - 2p + 1 ?