Question

Explain why the polynomial 144x2 − 200x + 81 is not a perfect square.

Answer 1

Answer: It's not

Explanation:

A perfect square is always
`(x+y)^(2)`, where
`x^(2) +2xy+y^(2)`.

Knowing this, we can square root 144x to get 12x. Square rooting 81 gets us 9. Unfortunately, if we multiply 12 and 9 together, then double it, we get 216, which is definitely not 200.

Therefore, the polynomial is not a perfect square.