SOLUTION: It's factoring patterns. I did solve this one, but I am not sure what I did wrong. The problem is x^2+x-6. The answer I got was (x+2)(x-3).

Question 147453This question is from textbook algebra
: It's factoring patterns. I did solve this one, but I am not sure what I did wrong. The problem is x^2+x-6. The answer I got was (x+2)(x-3). This question is from textbook algebra

Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Looking at we can see that the first term is and the last term is where the coefficients are 1 and -6 respectively.

Now multiply the first coefficient 1 and the last coefficient -6 to get -6. Now what two numbers multiply to -6 and add to the middle coefficient 1? Let's list all of the factors of -6:

Factors of -6:
1,2,3,6

-1,-2,-3,-6 ...List the negative factors as well. This will allow us to find all possible combinations

These factors pair up and multiply to -6
(1)*(-6)
(2)*(-3)
(-1)*(6)
(-2)*(3)

note: remember, the product of a negative and a positive number is a negative number

Now which of these pairs add to 1? Lets make a table of all of the pairs of factors we multiplied and see which two numbers add to 1

First Number	Second Number	Sum
1	-6	1+(-6)=-5
2	-3	2+(-3)=-1
-1	6	-1+6=5
-2	3	-2+3=1

From this list we can see that -2 and 3 add up to 1 and multiply to -6

Now looking at the expression , replace with (notice adds up to . So it is equivalent to )

Now let's factor by grouping:

Group like terms

Factor out the GCF of out of the first group. Factor out the GCF of out of the second group

Since we have a common term of , we can combine like terms

So factors to

So this also means that factors to (since is equivalent to )

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Answer:
So factors to .

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