Step-by-step explanation:
It seems here that they are asking us to solve for x
to do this we first need to factor
Since we can't factor this using the normal method we can instead do this
x^2 -4x-17=0
add 4 to both sides as it is a perfect square
x^2 - 4x + 4 = 17 +4
(x-2)^2 = sqrt 21
x-2 = ± 4.58
x -2 = 4.58 x-2 = -4.58
x= 6.58 x=-2.58
Or just say x=2+√21 or x=2−√21