Answer:
[tex]x=-7,-3[/tex]
Step-by-step explanation:
Completing the square means you are changing the polynomial so that it is a perfect square trinomial. Since the middle term is 10, we need the last term to be 25 since 5+5=10, thus, 5*5=25:
[tex]x^2+10x+21=0\\x^2+10x+21+4=0+4\\x^2+10x+25=4\\(x+5)^2=4\\x+5=\pm2\\x=-7,-3[/tex]
As you can see, because we change [tex]x^2+10x+21[/tex] to [tex]x^2+10x+25[/tex] by adding 4 to both sides, we were able to reduce it to [tex](x+5)^2[/tex], a perfect square, and solve the rest of the problem.
