Question

Which of the binomials below is a factor of this trinomial?

x2 – 4x – 12

A. x – 6
B. x – 4
C. x – 2
D. x – 3

Answer 1

x^2- 4x -12 can be factored as (x-6)(x+2). so (x-6) is the answer.

Answer 2

To factor, we must first figure out what two numbers have a sum of -4 and a product of -12. The answer to this is -6 and 2; therefore, we know we must use these numbers in our two factors. This method is shown below:

x^2 - 4x - 12

(x - 6) (x + 2)

To check our work, we can multiply the two factors we have found together and make sure that they recreate our original expression. (x-6)(x+2) = x^2 - 4x - 12, so our answer is correct.

Hope this helps!