How do you factor x^3-49x?

2 Answers
Mar 3, 2018

Since we have x^3, we know that we need one x out and two x inside the parentheses.

And we know (7)(7) is 49. Since it is -49, one of the seven will be negative.

Thus

The answer is: x(x+7)(x-7)

Mar 3, 2018

x(x+7)(x-7)

Explanation:

We can see that both terms contain an x which we can factor out to get x(x^2-49)

Now we can use difference of two squares to factorise x^2-49. Difference of two squares tells us that a^2-b^2=(a+b)(a-b)

x^2-49=(x+7)(x-7) since 7^2=49

Substituting this gives us x(x+7)(x-7)