Simplify (x^2-13x-36)/(36-x^2)

$\frac{x^{2} - 13 x - 36}{36 - x^{2}}$

Step 1

Rewrite $36$ as $6^{2}$ .

$\frac{x^{2} - 13 x - 36}{6^{2} - x^{2}}$

Step 2

Since both terms are perfect squares, factor using the difference of squares formula, $a^{2} - b^{2} = (a + b) (a - b)$ where $a = 6$ and $b = x$ .

$\frac{x^{2} - 13 x - 36}{(6 + x) (6 - x)}$