Question

Factor x^2-5x-24 i need help to figure this out

Answer 1

Answer:

(x-8)(x+3)

Step-by-step explanation:

1) Find out what are the factors of the constant?

2) Which of those add to equal the coefficient before the x value?

In this particular equation, we have the constant being 24. The first two factors that come to mind are 6 and 4, and 8 and 3. Since it is -24, we need one of these numbers to be negative.

Let's look at our "b" value, or the coefficient behind the x value, 5. Looking at our factors and thinking of addition (since one of them must be negative, it will most likely be subtraction instead of addition) I can see that

8+ −3=5

which is one of the factors of -24.

This means that we can factor our equation using these numbers, getting us the following:

(x−3)(x+8)

Hope this helped!