Question 70970
We're looking for 2 numbers that add to -2 and multiply to 1. The only factors which multiply to 1 are: 1 and 1 (1*1=1), and -1 and -1 (-1*-1=1). If we add 1 and 1 we get 2, not -2, so these two don't work. If we add -1 and -1 we get -2, which works. So we then place these two numbers in parenthesis with x terms like so:
{{{(x-1)(x-1)}}} If we FOIL this we get {{{x^2 - 2x +1}}}} again
This can be also written as this
{{{(x-1)^2}}}