Question

Factor this polynomial completely. If it will not factor state that in the answer.

Answer 1

The given expression is,

$x^2-x-42$

We have,

$\begin{gathered} -7x+6x=-x \\ -7\times6=42 \end{gathered}$

We can rearrange the above expression as,

$\begin{gathered} x^2-x-42=x^2-7x+6x-42 \\ \text{ =x(x-7)}+6(x-7) \\ \text{ =(x-7)(x+6)} \end{gathered}$