Step 1 :
After factoring out $ x^{2} $ we have:
$$ x^{4}-14x^{3}+13x^{2} = x^{2} ( x^{2}-14x+13 ) $$Step 2 :
Step 2: 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:
$$ \color{blue}{ b = -14 } ~ \text{ and } ~ \color{red}{ c = 13 }$$Now we must discover two numbers that sum up to $ \color{blue}{ -14 } $ and multiply to $ \color{red}{ 13 } $.
Step 3: Find out pairs of numbers with a product of $\color{red}{ c = 13 }$.
| PRODUCT = 13 | |
| 1 13 | -1 -13 |
Step 4: Find out which pair sums up to $\color{blue}{ b = -14 }$
| PRODUCT = 13 and SUM = -14 | |
| 1 13 | -1 -13 |
Step 5: Put -1 and -13 into placeholders to get factored form.
$$ \begin{aligned} x^{2}-14x+13 & = (x + \color{orangered}{\square} )(x + \color{orangered}{\square}) \\ x^{2}-14x+13 & = (x -1)(x -13) \end{aligned} $$