Question

How do I make this a product?

I tried solving it, but I ended up getting the incorrect answer. Here’s what I did:

a-b+a^2-b^2
(a-b)+(a-b)(a+b)
2(a-b)(a+b)

What did I do wrong?

Answer 1

What you did wrong:

(a-b)+(a-b)(a+b)=(a-b)+(a-b)(n)

so the terms can't be combined, like 4+4n wouldn't make 8n

What you should do:

a-b+a²-b²

a²+a-b²-b

(a+b+1)(a-b)