Question

Which expression is equivalent to 27 + 15

Answer 1

The answer to your question is 3 (9 + 5).
Because 3 × 9 is 27
And 3 × 5 is 15
Therefore your answer is 3 (9 + 5) :)

Answer 2

Remark

3 is a common factor. If you pull 3 out using the distributive property, you get 3(9 + 5)

You could do this with much more complex questions like 625 + 730

For the question you were given, You could factor this into their primes.

15:  3 * 5

27: 3 * 3 * 3

The highest common factor is 3

So that is what comes out. The rest is inside the brackets.

3(5 + 9) shows what is left over.

For the example I used

625: 5 * 5 * 5 * 5

740: 5 * 2 * 2 * 37 There is only 5 that is common to both of these.

5(125 + 148)