3(x–2)2 – 3(x–2) – 6 To see this better, I will color the parentheses red: 3(x-2)2 – 3(x-2) – 6 Look carefully at each of these and you will notice just how similar they are. Especially observe the red parts: 3(x-2)2 – 3(x-2) – 6 and 3y2 - 3y - 6 Do you see that the only difference between them is their red parts? The expression on the right is an ordinary factoring job, and we do it this way: 3y2 - 3y - 6 3(y2 - y - 2) 3(y - 2)(y + 1) So we do the exact same thing with your problem: 3(x-2)2 – 3(x-2) – 6 ---> 3y2 - 3y - 6 3[(x-2)2 - (x-2) - 2] ---> 3(y2 - y - 2) 3[(x-2) - 2][(x-2) + 1] ---> 3(y - 2)(y + 1) Do you see that what's done on the left is just like what's done on the right except that on the right we are doing it with just a single letter y, whereas on the left we are doing those same steps only with something a bit more complicated-looking, namely (x-2). We're also using brackets [ ] on your problem because the red expression already contains parentheses ( ). This is a skill of algebra that you must develop -- Viewing a big chunk of algebra like (x-2) just as you view a small chunk of algebra, such as y. There is only a couple things more that we need to do with your problem than we had to do with the one on the right. They are to remove the parentheses inside the brackets, collect terms, and change the brackets to parentheses. 3[(x-2) - 2][(x-2) + 1] 3[ x-2 - 2][x-2 + 1] 3[x-4][x-1] 3(x-4)(x-1) Edwin