I need some help with factoring quadratics.

Question

anonymous · Answer

use the quadratic formula

anonymous · Answer

I was looking over my notes for my midterm in Algebra II, and I think I copied down this wrong. It says if my original equation is -x²+14x+40 my factored equation would be -1(x+10)(x+4), I foiled this out because it looked wrong and I got positive x²+14+40.  What do I have wrong?

anonymous · Answer

*this down by the way...

anonymous · Answer

-(x^2 - 14 - 40)

now factor x^2 - 14 - 40 using either the quadratic formula of completing the square

anonymous · Answer

Well, I used the quadratic formula and I got: $$x=7\pm3\sqrt{2}$$ Is this right?

anonymous · Answer

to check if your answer is correct, plug the number(s) back into your original expression.

if the answer you get is 0, then you have found the correct roots

anonymous · Answer

because the whole point of factoring is to find what x values make f(x) = 0

anonymous · Answer

Well, now I am just more confused then when I started,.