<PRE><B>Question 1162925</B>
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I don&#39;t know what 4-step process you are supposed to use....  And the other tutor just shows the factorization of the original quartic equation as the product of two quadratics.&lt;br&gt;
So here is a process you CAN use to do that factorization.&lt;br&gt;
Because of the signs, and because of the leading coefficient and constant term both being 1, the factorization will be of the form&lt;br&gt;
{{{(a^2-ma+1)(a^2-na+1)}}}&lt;br&gt;
Expand that and compare to the given quartic equation.&lt;br&gt;
{{{a^4-(m+n)a^3+(1+mn+1)a^2-(m+n)a+1 = a^4-97a^3+2012a^2-97a+1}}}&lt;br&gt;
This gives two equations in m and n:&lt;br&gt;
{{{m+n = 97}}}
{{{mn+2 = 2012}}} --&gt; {{{mn = 2010}}}&lt;br&gt;
Algebra -- or, better yet, a little playing with numbers -- will find m and n are (in either order) 30 and 67.&lt;br&gt;
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