Question

Express ax − a + x − 1 as a product of two binomials.

Answer 1

ax - a + x - 1 = a(x - 1) + (x - 1) = (x - 1)(a + 1)
The answer is: (x - 1)(a + 1)

Answer 2

In this case you can factorize the expresion using common factor twise as follows:

first factor
`a` in the two first terms and use the asociative law to associate the third and fourth terms:

`a(x-1) + (x-1)`

In the last expression, we have once again a common factor, namely
`(x-1)`. So we factorize by common factor to obtain:

`(x-1)(a+1)`

and this complete the answer.