# need help finding tutorial for this problem

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• Nov 21st 2013, 05:06 PM
thatsmessedup
need help finding tutorial for this problem
Hi guys and gals,
I am reading schaums outline of precalculus 2nd ed. and I am having some issues solving a problem.

Can someone point me to a tutorial that can help me factor equations like this:

(x-2)^3-(x-2)^2

They give you the answer of (x-2)^2(x-3) but I don't understand how they got there.
Thank you.
• Nov 21st 2013, 05:10 PM
chiro
Re: need help finding tutorial for this problem
Hey thatsmessedup.

This is of the form ab - ac = a(b-c) (the distributive law). In this case a = (x-2)^2, b = (x-2), c = 1 which means it reduces to a(b-c) = (x-2)^2(x-2-1) = (x-2)^2(x-3)
• Nov 21st 2013, 05:18 PM
Melody2
Re: need help finding tutorial for this problem
Quote:

Originally Posted by thatsmessedup
Hi guys and gals,
I am reading schaums outline of precalculus 2nd ed. and I am having some issues solving a problem.

Can someone point me to a tutorial that can help me factor equations like this:

(x-2)^3-(x-2)^2

They give you the answer of (x-2)^2(x-3) but I don't understand how they got there.
Thank you.

\begin{align*}(x-2)^3-(x-2)^2=&(x-2)^2(x-2) - (x-2)^2\times 1\\=&(x-2)^2((x-2)-1)\\=&(x-2)^2(x-3)\end{align*}

does that help?
• Nov 21st 2013, 05:30 PM
thatsmessedup
Re: need help finding tutorial for this problem
holy cow... thanks for the fast response. I feel like a deer in headlights looking at your math. I will do my best to understand this but I still cant quite grasp it. I am a very visual learner... do you think there are any youtube videos on this?
• Nov 21st 2013, 05:35 PM
Melody2
Re: need help finding tutorial for this problem
Factorising Expressions - YouTube

I watch a bit of this one - it might help you I think.
• Nov 21st 2013, 05:47 PM
thatsmessedup
Re: need help finding tutorial for this problem
Damn... I feel smart now! thank you sooooo much! Just what I needed.