Find the term that should be added to the expression to form a perfect square trinominal. Write the resulting perfect square trinomial in factored form.

Question

x^2+5x

Answer 1

To find the term that should be added, we take half of the coefficient of the x term and square it.

Half of 5 is 2.5, and when we square it we get 6.25.

So the term that should be added to the expression is 6.25.

The resulting perfect square trinomial in factored form is:
(x + 2.5)^2 or (x + 2.5)(x + 2.5)