Question

Can someone help me with an Algebra 2 assignment?

Answer 1

Video shows a woman standing in front of a pizzeria restaurant and shows corresponding mathematical expressions on-screen as they're referred to in the audio.

Audio: Hi, I'm Teresa. My friend Rico and I are headed to a pizza place to work on our math homework. It's all about special factors — maybe you can help.

We're having trouble with the last five problems. We decided that whoever gets the most correct has to buy the other person a slice of pizza. Math makes Rico hungry.

Here's the problem we just figured out.

We had to factor this: parentheses, y to the 4th power minus 16, parentheses.

We recognized the difference of two squares, and factored it into this: parentheses, y squared minus 4, parentheses times parentheses, y squared plus 4, parentheses.

Then we realized we could use the difference of two squares again — factoring parentheses, y plus 2, parentheses times parentheses, y pminus 2, parentheses times parentheses, y squared plus 4, parentheses.

So far, so good.

But now we have a harder problem: parentheses, x to the 8th power minus 6561, parentheses. Can we do the same thing on this one?

I think we can use the difference of two squares. But Rico disagrees. He says that 6561 is not a perfect square

Who is right? You're the judge. Help us with the rest of our problems. Who's buying the next slice?