How do you factor the trinomial $p^2 - 6p - 40$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2018-04-01T19:40:52

$(p-10)(p+4)$

We need to find two numbers that sum up to $-6$ and their product is $-40$ .

Since their product is negative, we know the signs have to be different. Through some trial and error, we arrive at $-10$ and $4$ , as

$-10+4=-6$ and

$-10*4=-40$

Therefore, these will be our two factors. We have:

$(p-10)(p+4)$

You can verify this by distributing to each term or using FOIL.

Hope this helps!

How do you factor the trinomial p^2 - 6p - 40p^2 - 6p - 40?