Question

Find the GCF of the terms of the polynomial.
44x5 + 16x3

Answer 1

Know how to factor those?

Answer 2

no?

Answer 3

OK, well, your first term is \(44x^5\) and your second is \(16x^3\). Right off, can you pull out some of the xes from both?

Factoring is like un-distributing. So if I have \(x(x+3)\) and I distribue the x, I get \(x^2+3x\). Well, I can factor that back to \(x(x+3)\). Can you factor out some xes out of yours in that way?

Answer 4

yes, thank you :)

Answer 5

You also need to factor out what you can from the numbers, 44 and 16. Once you have all posible xs and numbers factord out, that is the GCF. So in my example, it was just x, but what about this?

\(2a^2+6a\)
If I factor the a:
\(a(2a+6)\)
but the numbers can still factor:
\(2a(a+3)\)

That means for \(2a^2+6a\) the GCF is 2a. You are just doing the same basic thing with your \(44x^5+16x^3\).