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Solve for x:
(x-2)(x + 8) = 0

User Nodm
by
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1 Answer

1 vote

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.

User Rohit Kulshreshtha
by
7.8k points

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