Factor u^2-8u+16

$u^{2} - 8 u + 16$

Step 1

Rewrite $16$ as $4^{2}$ .

$u^{2} - 8 u + 4^{2}$

Step 2

Check that the middle term is two times the product of the numbers being squared in the first term and third term.

$8 u = 2 \cdot u \cdot 4$

Step 3

Rewrite the polynomial.

$u^{2} - 2 \cdot u \cdot 4 + 4^{2}$

Step 4

Factor using the perfect square trinomial rule $a^{2} - 2 a b + b^{2} = {(a - b)}^{2}$ , where $a = u$ and $b = 4$ .

${(u - 4)}^{2}$