Can someone teach me how to factor a perfect square? I have an example in my notes and I know what to do until I get to the perfect square. I appreciate it.

Question

anonymous · Answer

sure, do you have an example you could provide?

anonymous · Answer

Convert the following functions to standard form. These are all quadratic functions
 Y=-4(x+2)(x+7)

anonymous · Answer

I went through (hopefully correctly) and I'm stuck at y=-4(x^2-36x+1)-56

anonymous · Answer

The example from my notes confuses me a bit

triciaal · Answer

to factor a perfect square you are just using the positive and the negative of the same number
example 16  sq rt of 16  4 but it could also be -4 because when you multiply a negative by a negative the result is positive

+4*+4 = +16  and -4*-4 = + 16

144 = 12^2 but it is also -12^2

triciaal · Answer

any questions before i look at your notes?

triciaal · Answer

ok so I looked at your notes and what I got from it is you don't need to factor a perfect square you need to rewrite the quadratic so you can square the factor.