Factor polynomial $$ -t^{3}+t^{2}+t-1 $$

$$ -t^{3}+t^{2}+t-1 = -( t-1 )^{ 2 }( t+1 ) $$

Step 1 :

After factoring out $ -1 $ we have:

$$ -t^{3}+t^{2}+t-1 = - ~ ( t^{3}-t^{2}-t+1 ) $$

Step 2 :

To factor $ t^{3}-t^{2}-t+1 $ we can use factoring by grouping:

Group $ \color{blue}{ x^{3} }$ with $ \color{blue}{ -x^{2} }$ and $ \color{red}{ -x }$ with $ \color{red}{ 1 }$ then factor each group.

$$ \begin{aligned} t^{3}-t^{2}-t+1 = ( \color{blue}{ x^{3}-x^{2} } ) + ( \color{red}{ -x+1 }) &= \\ &= \color{blue}{ x^{2}( x-1 )} + \color{red}{ -1( x-1 ) } = \\ &= (x^{2}-1)(x-1) \end{aligned} $$

Step 3 :

Rewrite $ t^{2}-1 $ as:

$$ t^{2}-1 = (t)^2 - (1)^2 $$

Now we can apply the difference of squares formula.

$$ I^2 - II^2 = (I - II)(I + II) $$

After putting $ I = t $ and $ II = 1 $ , we have:

$$ t^{2}-1 = (t)^2 - (1)^2 = ( t-1 ) ( t+1 ) $$

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