2. Factoring a Perfect Square Trinomial
ï 64x2 - 16x + 1 Is the first term a perfect square?
Is the last term a perfect square?
Is the middle term twice the product of 8 and 1? YES
(8x)2 1 (8x - 1)2
Check your Self FOIL
(8x-1) (8x-1)
(8x)2 - 8x - 8x +(-1)-1
64x2 -16x +1
3. Factoring a Difference of Two Squares
ï 25x2 - 49
Find your perfect squares
ï 25x2-49 = (5x)2 - 72
= (5x + 7) (5x â 7)
= 25x2 - 49