x^2-x-2 using second sign minus
x^2-x-2
To factor the expression x^2 - x - 2, we can follow these steps:
Step 1: Multiply the coefficient of the quadratic term (x^2) and the constant term (-2). In this case, -2 * 1 equals -2.
Step 2: Find two numbers that multiply to give the product from step 1 (-2) and add up to the coefficient of the linear term (-1). In this case, the two numbers are -2 and +1 because (-2) + (+1) equals -1 and (-2) * (+1) equals -2.
Step 3: Rewrite the middle term (-x) as the sum of the two numbers found in step 2. In this case, we can write -x as -2x + 1x, based on the numbers -2 and +1.
Now we can factor the expression as follows:
x^2 - x - 2
= x^2 - 2x + x - 2
= (x^2 - 2x) + (x - 2)
= x(x - 2) + 1(x - 2)
= (x + 1)(x - 2)
So, the expression x^2 - x - 2 can be factored as (x + 1)(x - 2) using the second sign minus.