The GCF of the coefficients 12,-4,16 is 4 The GCF of the variable terms is x^2 since this is the smallest variable term that is found in each of x^5, x^2 and x^3 Overall, the GCF is 4x^2.
Factor each term in terms of the GCF 12x^5 = (12)*(x^5) 12x^5 = (4*3)*(x^3*x^2) 12x^5 = (4x^2)*(3x^3) <--- call this equation (1) ------------- 4x^2 = (4x^2)*(1) <--- call this equation (2) ------------- 16x^3 = (4*4)*(x^2*x) 16x^3 = (4x^2)*(4x) <--- call this equation (3) ------------- Using those individual factorizations, we can apply the distributive property to factor out the GCF
