Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 1/30/2011

Question
Grade 12. age 18.
could you show me how to factor x^2+9x+14 step by step please?
thank you!

Answer
I assume you know that the factors have to be (x+a) and (x+b).  If you multiply those you get
x^2 +ax+bx +ab.  If you match the terms you will see that ax+bx = 9x and ab = 14.
Since a+b = 9 and ab = 14, it's not too hard to figure that a and b are 2 and 7.