Question

factor x^2-11x-12

Answer 1

(x-12) (x+1)

Answer 2

(x-12)(x+1)

x= 12

x= -1

Answer 3

you have to solve a lot of questions yourself in order to solve these factoring questions easily. if you just want a quick answer to problems, then i suggest you use www.wolfram.com to check.

otherwise, take the value of the number of the far right (the one with no variable on it) and see what two numbers multiply to it.
you'll see that there are several combinations:
1*12 , 2*6, and 3*4

nice factoring problems will usually work out with the combinations that you can find this way. if not, you would have to go on about using the quadratic rule which i wont mention here, but you can ask me separately if you want to know more about it.

so once you find the possible combinations, try them out to see if any of them would ADD or SUBTRACT to give you the number in the middle (with a variable to a single power).

after few tries, you will see that 1-12 will give you -11.

therefore, you can fit these findings in such way:
(x-12)(x+1)

and by putting this entire equation equalling to 0, you can find the value of x's, which are 12 and -1.

hope it helped!