Question

Can you factor the common factor out of this problem? 3p+12q-15q^2r^2

Answer 1

Greatest common factor is 3

Answer 2

The answer after being factored is, $-3( 5q^{2} r^{2} -p-4q)$

When we are factoring, all we are doing is finding a GCF and taking it from the expression and dividing it into every term. Let's break our expression into parts first

$3p$

$12q$

$-15q^{2} r^{2}$

Now, each number is divisible by 3, but since our biggest number is a negative, we will make our GCF -3 instead of 3. So let's divide each part by -3.

$3p / -3 =-p$

$12q/-3=-4q$

$-15q ^{2} r^{2} /-3=5q^{2} r^{2}$

Now let's put it together in an expression:

$5q^{2} r^{2} -p-4q$

When we factor we always put our factored expression in parenthesis with the term the expression was factored by on the outside like so:


$-3(5q^{2} r^{2} -p-4q)$

Thank you for the question I hope this helped! Have an amazing day! :D