I've started reading through a pre-calculus textbook for self-study and came across this problem in the second chapter: $$(x-2)^3-(x-2)^2$$ The final answer is $(x-2)^2(x-3)$
Everywhere I look but I have no idea how it comes to that. Binomial expansion was mentioned on one site but the binomial theorem appears in a later chapter. What is the method/methods used to factor this expression?
Use the distributive property: $$ab-ac=a(b-c)$$ Here, we have $$a=(x-2)^2\qquad b=(x-2)\qquad c=1$$ Thus $$(x-2)^3-(x-2)^2=(x-2)^2((x-2) -1)=(x-2)^2(x-3)$$