document.write( "Question 108826: We just started factoring polynomials and I don't understand how you can tell if a problem when you first look at it,doesn't have a greater common factor.For example my teacher had this one:21x-7 and another one was:x^9y^6-x^7y^5+x^4y^4+x^3y^3
\n" ); document.write( "This so confusing to me,if you could help I would really appreciate it.Thank you in advance JH \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #79347 by stanbon(75887)\"\" \"About 
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how you can tell if a problem when you first look at it,doesn't have a greater common factor.For example my teacher had this one:
\n" ); document.write( "21x-7
\n" ); document.write( "You have to see that 21 is the product of 3 and 7
\n" ); document.write( "You have to see that you have two terms: 21x and -7
\n" ); document.write( "Then you might see that \"7\" is a factor common to both terms
\n" ); document.write( "So, you \"factor out\" the 7 by dividing each term by 7 to get:
\n" ); document.write( "7(3x-1)
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "x^9y^6 - x^7y^5 + x^4y^4 + x^3y^3
\n" ); document.write( "Checking the four terms you have to see there is a common
\n" ); document.write( "factor of x^3 in each term and a common factor of y^3 in
\n" ); document.write( "each term.
\n" ); document.write( "Divide each terms by x^3y^3 to get:
\n" ); document.write( "x^3y^3 (x^6x^3 -x^4y^3 +xy + 1)
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\n" ); document.write( "Hope that helps.
\n" ); document.write( "Cheers,
\n" ); document.write( "Stan H.
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