Factor polynomial $$ -x^{3}+2x^{2}+x-2 $$

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

Step 1 :

After factoring out $ -1 $ we have:

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

Step 2 :

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

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

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

Step 3 :

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

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

Now we can apply the difference of squares formula.

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

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

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

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