You can put this solution on YOUR website! First we need to do some factoring in the first expression. The question that you should always ask yourself when factoring is: What two factors of the last number add up to the coefficent of the middle number? Let's look at the first one. w^2-7w-18. What two factors of negative 18 add up to negative 7. The answer is -9 and 2. Split out your middle to get: (w^2-9w) + (2w-18). Factor out a w and 2 to get. w(w-9)+ 2(w-9). So your complete factoring is (w+2)(w-9). On the bottom you will get. (w-2)^2. To summarize your first expression factored should look like (w+2)(w-9)/(w-2)^2. When multiply you can cross cancel so do it. The w-9 on top of the first expression cross cancels with the w-9 on the bottom of the second expression and one of the w-2 on the bottom cross cancels with the w-2 on the top yielding (w+2)/(w-2)