Simplify square root of x^2-1

$\sqrt{x^{2} - 1}$

Step 1

Rewrite $1$ as $1^{2}$ .

$\sqrt{x^{2} - 1^{2}}$

Step 2

Since both terms are perfect squares, factor using the difference of squares formula, $a^{2} - b^{2} = (a + b) (a - b)$ where $a = x$ and $b = 1$ .

$\sqrt{(x + 1) (x - 1)}$