Hank’s teacher asked him to verify that the product (y – 3)(y2 + 3y + 9) is a difference of cubes. He used the distributive prop
erty to multiply the binomial times the trinomial. Before simplifying, his product was a polynomial of the form y3 + 3y2 + ay – 3y2 – ay – 27. What is the value of a in the polynomial?
