Were they defeated by a greater force the olmecas?

Explanation:

Were what?

the answer is option a.

answer

explanation

the given equation is

we can rewrite this as:

let

then the equation becomes:

the factors of 8 that sum up to -9 are {-1,-8}

we split the middle term with these factors to obtain,

we factor by grouping to obtain:

apply the zero product property to get:

but