How do you know if # x^2 + 8x + 16# is a perfect square trinomial and how do you factor it?
1 Answer
It is a perfect square. Explanation below.
Explanation:
Perfect squares are of the form
So we find that the first and last terms correspond to our expansion. Now we must check if the middle term,
The middle term is twice the constant times x, so it is
Okay, we found out that the trinomial is of the form
Let us rewrite it as