Factoring Using Perfect Square Trinomials

With the methods we've learned in the last two sections, we can factor many kinds of quadratic polynomials. This is very helpful when we want to solve them. Remember the process we learned earlier:

1. If necessary, rewrite the equation in standard form so that the right-hand side equals zero.
2. Factor the polynomial completely.
3. Use the zero-product rule to set each factor equal to zero.
4. Solve each equation from step 3.
5. Check your answers by substituting your solutions into the original equation

We can use this process to solve quadratic polynomials using the factoring methods we just learned.