<p>... something to the effect of-</p>
<p>x^2 + 16x + a = (x+b)^2 ---find a</p>
<p>I put 64 to make it a perfect square on the left.... was that correct?</p>
<p>The question seemed a little unclear to me.</p>
<p>yes i believe a = 64 .</p>
<p>if you expanded the expression on the right, you'd get:</p>
<p>x^2 + 16x + a = x^2 + 2bx + b^2</p>
<p>subtract x squared on both sides. then 16x equals 2bx, which makes b equal 8. according to the equation a = b^2, so a equals 64. you were correct.</p>
<p>It should be</p>
<p>The way I did it was that I saw 16x on the first part, then all you have to do is replace b with 8.</p>
<p>That would equal the first equation if a = 64</p>
<p>sa-weet</p>
<p>so i'll let you all know (you all = CC) my scores... hopefully I'll get an 80 on math. Last year, I was confident also, but I made a stupid bubbling error. We'll see, since I was much more cautious this year.</p>
<p>Yeah, same here</p>
<p>yeah, got a=64 and so did others at my school.</p>