Question

solve (y+1)(y-3) = -6

Answer 1

Welcome to openstudy :)
First what you do is FOIL

Answer 2

foil what part though? I have only had problems that looks like 3(y+1)(y-3)=whatever

Answer 3

You must expand it out like so:
\[(y+1)(y-3)=y(y-3)+1(y-3)=y^2-3y+y-3=y^2-2y+3\]
So you have
\[y^2-2y+3=-6\]
And you can move everything over to one side like so:
\[y^2-2y+3+6=0\phantom{spc}\rightarrow\phantom{spc}y^2-2y+9=0\]
So now that you have a quadratic equation, you can use the quadratic formula

Answer 4

I can demonstrate the quadratic equation if you want!