Answer:
x = 2; x = -8
Explanation:
We can think of (x - 2) and (x + 8) as two different expressions and because the two expressions are being multiplied by each other and are equal to 0, we can separate them and set both equal to 0 since you can only get 0 from multiplication if one of the expressions equals 0.
x - 2 = 0
x = 2
x + 8 = 0
x = -8
We can plug in each solution to check that they equal 0:
(2 - 2)(2 + 8) = 0
0 * 10 = 0
0 = 0
(-8 + 2)(-8 + 8) = 0
-6 * 0 = 0
0 = 0
As we can see, when either -2 is cancelled out by x =2 or 8 is cancelled out by x = -8, at least one of the expressions is equal to 0 and thus the solutions are valid.