Question

When the factors of a trinomial are x-p and x-q then the coefficient of the x term in the trinomial is_____. a. The quotient of -p and -q. b. the difference of -p and -q. c.the sum of -p and -q. d. the product of -p and -q

Answer 1

Answer:

choice c.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you FOIL this out, this is what you get:

$x^2-qx-px+pq$

We need only concentrate on the x-terms, so we will ignore the first and the last ones.  That leaves us with:

-qx - px

If we factor out the common x, we have:

x(-q - p), which can be rewritten as:

x(-q + -p), which is the sum of -q and -p,

choice c.