Fill in the blank to make the expression a perfect square

Question

w^2-14w+?

Answer 1

When the coefficient of the square term (w²) is 1, this is very easy.

 

Divide the coefficient of w by 2 and then square it. 

 

In this case, you first get -14 / 2 = -7, and then (-7)² = 49.

 

Or to be even easier, you can ignore the sign of the w term, because you're going to end up with the same positive number when you square a negative value or a positive value.