factor x squared - x - 12

Probably

(x+3)(x-4)

thank you!

To factor the expression x^2 - x - 12, we can look for two binomials that multiply together to give us the original expression.

We need to find two terms that, when multiplied, give us x^2 - x - 12. These two terms should have a product of -12 (since the last term of the expression is -12) and a sum of -1 (since the middle term is -1x).

To find these terms, we can make a list of all possible pairs of numbers that multiply to -12:

1, -12
-1, 12
2, -6
-2, 6
3, -4
-3, 4

From this list, we see that the pair -3 and 4 have a sum of -1. So, we can write x^2 - x - 12 as:

x^2 - 3x + 4x - 12

Now we can group the terms and factor by grouping:

(x^2 - 3x) + (4x - 12)

Factoring out the greatest common factor from each group, we get:

x(x - 3) + 4(x - 3)

Notice that we now have a common factor of (x - 3). We can factor it out:

(x - 3)(x + 4)

Therefore, the factored form of the expression x^2 - x - 12 is (x - 3)(x + 4).