Okay… ask yourself… what is the LARGEST numerical factor that you can factor out of both of the terms???

The 1st term has “2”… and the 2nd term has “8”… so the largest factor that goes into both 2 and 8 is…? 2! GREAT!

That’s how come there’s a “2” in the answer…

2(x+2)^3y + 8(x+2)^2y^2

Okay… NOW ask yourself… what is the LARGEST (x+2) factor that you can factor out of both of the terms???

The 1st term has “(x+2)^3″… and the 2nd term has “(x+2)^2″… so the largest factor that goes into both “(x+2)^3” and “(x+2)^2” is…??? (x+2)^2 GREAT!

Okay…. NOW ask yourself… what is the LARGEST “y” factor that you can factor out of both of the terms???

The 1st term has “y”… and the 2nd term has “y^2″… so the largest factor that goes into both “y” and “y^2” is…. ??? y GREAT!

So the largest factor that goes into both of them is….

2 * (x+2)^2 * y = “2(x+2)^2 y”

** Now you have to figure out what is “extra”… what is “extra” goes in the brackets [ ] **

Soo…. when you “factor out” the “2(x+2)^2 y” out of both terms…. you should get…

2(x+2)^3 y + 8(x+2)^2y^2

= 2(x+2)^2 (y)[(x+2) + 4y]

= 2(x+2)^2 (y)[x+2+4y] ANSWER

NOTE: the answer is NOT 2(x+2)^3 [x+2+4y]….

The CORRECT ANSWER is what I came up with… with an exponent of ^2, NOT ^3 . If that’s the answer in the back of the book, sometimes there are typos/mistakes. The ^3 is a mistake/typo.

The only way that you can get that answer that you are trying to get is if the given problem was…

2(x+2)^4 y + 8(x+2)^3 y^2