Practice Problem Solutions by Wesley Dugan:

1. x^2 – 16

The square root of x^2 is x and the square root of 16 is 4. So your answer should be…

(x + 4)(x - 4)

2. x^2 + 16x + 64

Here we want to square root the first and last variables. So the square root of x^2 is x and the square root 64 is 8.

(x + 8)^2

3. x^2 + 9x + 14

Here we want to factor it down. So (x +7)(x + 2). Use the zero product property here. x + 7 = 0 and x + 2 = 0. The answer is that x can be -7 or -2.

x = -7 or -2