Parent on line needs help ... long time since math
Aunt is 26 years older than niece - the product of their ages = 456 ... so x(x+26) = 456

Question

anonymous · Answer

yep that's right :)
just expand and you'll have a quadratic equation to be solved.

anonymous · Answer

but that is what I need help with ... my husband is the math guy

xsquared + 26x=456  then what

anonymous · Answer

xsquared + 26x=456,
xsquared + 26x-456=0,
factorize this quadratic equation .

anonymous · Answer

ok ..

xsquared - 456 = 26x

xsquared - 456 = x
________________
    26

Is that right?  I did it the back way and got the ages to be 12 and 38 ...  now I know why I am an attorney :-)

anonymous · Answer

that's not factorization.
if you factorize, you'll get
(x+38)(x-12)=0
x=-38 or x=12.
since x is age, and age must be positive integer, we take x=12 as the answer :)

anonymous · Answer

Thank you

anonymous · Answer

Welcome :)