Step 1: Identify constants $ \color{blue}{ b }$ and $\color{red}{ c }$. ( $ \color{blue}{ b }$ is a number in front of the $ x $ term and $ \color{red}{ c } $ is a constant). In our case:
$$ \color{blue}{ b = -7 } ~ \text{ and } ~ \color{red}{ c = 6 }$$Now we must discover two numbers that sum up to $ \color{blue}{ -7 } $ and multiply to $ \color{red}{ 6 } $.
Step 2: Find out pairs of numbers with a product of $\color{red}{ c = 6 }$.
| PRODUCT = 6 | |
| 1 6 | -1 -6 |
| 2 3 | -2 -3 |
Step 3: Find out which pair sums up to $\color{blue}{ b = -7 }$
| PRODUCT = 6 and SUM = -7 | |
| 1 6 | -1 -6 |
| 2 3 | -2 -3 |
Step 4: Put -1 and -6 into placeholders to get factored form.
$$ \begin{aligned} x^{2}-7x+6 & = (x + \color{orangered}{\square} )(x + \color{orangered}{\square}) \\ x^{2}-7x+6 & = (x -1)(x -6) \end{aligned} $$