can you help me simplify c^2-2c+4?

Answer 1

c² - 2c + 4

c(c - 2) + 4

Now if this were a quadratic equation in the form
c² - 2c + 4 = 0, it would have complex numbers as the solution. I'll go ahead and solve it with the quadratic formula so you can see.

c² - 2c + 4 = 0

ax² + bx + c = 0
x = (-b ± √(b² - 4ac))/2a

x = (2 ± √(4 - 16))/2

x = (2 ± √(-12))/2

x = (2 ± 2i√(3))/2

x = 1 ± i√(3)
.

Answer 2

Hi,

The only way to simplify something with a c^2 if you don't know what it is equal to is to factorise it into two brackets. However, there is no way to factorise this.

If the expression was "c^2-5c+4":

(c-4)(c-1) would multiply out to give the original expression.
The two numbers in the brackets have to multiply to give the end number (in this case +4) and add to give the coefficient of c (in the case of the expression you gave in the question, this is -2). However, there are no factors of 4 that can be added to give -2.

Sorry, but I hope my explanation helped a little :-)