Question

Factor Completely.
w^2-14w+48

Answer 1

(w-6)(w-8)

Answer 2

How do you do it though?

Answer 3

basically you have to find two numbers that give a product of positive 48. These two number also have to equal the middle number, so in this case negative 14w. When you have a negative second term and a positive third term, both the factors have to be negative. So in this case it would be (w-6)(w-8). Always multiply it back together to see if it works. Its basically guessing and checking