Question 8 • CMS 2026-2027 Foundations of Math 3 INITIAL CREDIT
A perfect-square trinomial with leading term x² has the form (x + a)² = x² + 2ax + a². Matching coefficients with x² + mx + m gives m = 2a and m = a², so a² = 2a. The nonzero solution is a = 2, giving m = 4 and x² + mx + m = (x + 2)², choice D.
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