Question

how do u factor a problem completely?

Answer 1

you "un-multiply" it

Answer 2

reducing to prime factors is at the heart of it ....

Answer 3

so can you show by an example with showing the steps by factoring the problem 4x^2+4x+2xy+2y

Answer 4

Factor it 'til you can't factor it no more! :)

Answer 5

i would start by stacking the terms

4x^2
4x
2xy
2y

then reducing them to their prime components

2.2xx
2.2x
2x y
2 y

now we can wee what they all have in common

in this case its just a 2

Answer 6

pulling out the 2 we reduce it to:

2 (2x^2+2x+xy+y)

which looks to me like as far as we can get for the example

Answer 7

okay thank you

Answer 8

youre welcome