Question

Factor.
x, squared, minus, x, minus, 72
x
2
−x−72

Answers

There are no human answers yet.
Answered by GPT-4o mini
To factor the quadratic expression \( x^2 - x - 72 \), we need to find two numbers that multiply to \(-72\) (the constant term) and add to \(-1\) (the coefficient of the linear term).

The two numbers that fit these criteria are \(8\) and \(-9\) because:

- \(8 \times (-9) = -72\)
- \(8 + (-9) = -1\)

Therefore, we can factor the expression as follows:

\[
x^2 - x - 72 = (x + 8)(x - 9)
\]

So, the factored form of the expression \( x^2 - x - 72 \) is:

\[
(x + 8)(x - 9)
\]

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