Question

If the GCF is equal to one of the terms of the expression you are factoring, what must you be careful of?

Answer 1

Be careful. If a term of the polynomial is exactly the same as the GCF, when you divide it by the GCF you are left with 1, NOT 0. Don’t think, 'oh I have nothing left', there is actually a 1. As shown above when we divide 2x by 2x we get 1, so we need a 1 as the third term inside of the ( ).