## anonymous one year ago Factor the following expression 18u^3v^2x^6−12u^7v^8

1. anonymous

Oops - it should be 3u^9v^4w^3+15u^2v^5

2. myininaya

Hi. @Juliette2120 do you know the greatest common factor of 18 and 12?

3. myininaya

oh sorry didn't see the new problem.

4. myininaya

Do you know the greatest common factor of 3 and 15?

5. myininaya

if I write 15 as 3(5) and you compare 3 to 3(5) can you tell me the factors that 3 and 3(5) have in common?

6. anonymous

3 is the greatest common factor

7. myininaya

yes now let's look at the u's of each term $3u^9v^4w^3+15u^2v^5\\ 3(u^9v^4w^3+5u^2v^5)$ so this is what we have now but we can factor out more than just what we factored out

8. myininaya

now looking at the u part... we have u^9 and u^2

9. myininaya

$u^9=u^2 \cdot u^7$ what factors does $u^2 \cdot u^7 \text{ and } u^2 \text{ have in common }$

10. myininaya

let me know if you are having trouble?

11. anonymous

Sorry! OS won't seem to let me post my replies!

12. myininaya

I guess it let's you reply after refreshing the page ? Or do you have to completely leave and come back to post a reply? I'm on google chrome and haven o problems. Maybe you can try that internet browser.

13. anonymous

I think I was able to figure this out. Thank you very much for your help! Just the simplification sent me in the right direction.

14. myininaya

No problem.

15. myininaya

But we still needed to factor out a few more things.