Expert: Bobby Soltani - 11/15/2005

Question
c^2-49 HOW DO YOU SOLVE THIS?

Answer
Hi Sarah,

There are several properties of factoring that you just need to memorize.  Relevent for this problem, we need to know that

a^2 - b^2 = (a - b)(a + b)

c^2 - 49

= c^2 - 7^2
from the formula above, a = c, and b = 7.  So we can write

c^2 - 49 = (c - 7)(c + 7)

Let me know if you have any questions.

Bobby