Factoring Common Terms

Finding the GCF of the following

a) xy, y^2x, x^2y
b) x^2, x^3, x^3
c) y^2(2y - 1), 3(2y - 1)

Question

Factoring Common Terms

Finding the GCF of the following

a) xy, y^2x, x^2y 
b) x^2, x^3, x^3 
c) y^2(2y - 1), 3(2y - 1)

anonymous · Answer

When you see these questions, you're asking "what are the common terms in each example, and how many of them can you take out?".

For a) you have xs and ys, so you're for sure going to take out at least one x and one y. then you go through each one and decide "can I take out more than one x or y"

it turns out for a), you can't take out more than one x and one y from the first term, so the GCF is xy.

Do the same with b and c.

anonymous · Answer

b) x^3
c) 2y

anonymous · Answer

on b, can you take x^3 our of x^2?

and you're on the right path on c, but 2y is part of a binomial (2y-1)

so you can actually take (2y-1) out of both.

anonymous · Answer

no....

anonymous · Answer

no what?

anonymous · Answer

u ask if i cud take x3 out of x2