How do you factor $(x^2) - 8x + 12$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2015-10-03T15:17:03

$color(blue)((x-2)(x-6)$ is the factorised form of the equation .

$x^2−8x+12$

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:

$N_1*N_2 = a*c = 1*12 = 12$
AND
$N_1 +N_2 = b = -8$

After trying out a few numbers we get $N_1 = -2$ and $N_2 =-6$
$-2*-6 = 12$ and $-2-6= -8$

$x^2−8x+12 =x^2−6x-2x+12$

$=x(x-6) -2(x-6)$

$color(blue)((x-2)(x-6)$ is the factorised form of the equation .

How do you factor (x^2) - 8x + 12(x^2) - 8x + 12?