SOLUTION: factor 3x^4 y^2 - 3x^2y^2

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Question 261683: factor
3x^4 y^2 - 3x^2y^2
Found 2 solutions by checkley77, PRMath:
Answer by checkley77(12844) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
3x^4 y^2 - 3x^2 y^2
3X^2Y^2(X^2-1)
3X^2Y^2(X-1)(X+1) ANS.

Answer by PRMath(133) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Your problem is:
3x%5E4y%5E2%29 - 3x%5E2y%5E2 What is common to both? Well, a 3 is common and there are x and y variables. You can "pull out" those numbers and variables and when we "pull" them out, it means we are DIVIDING. Try this:

Let's pull out a 3, as well as an x%5E2 and a y%5E2, k?

3x%5E2y%5E2%28x%5E2+-+1%29 <---To get this, we divided 3x%5E4y%5E2%29/3x%5E2y%5E2 to get x%5E2 and we divided -3x%5E2y%5E2/3x%5E2y%5E2 to get -1.
We still are not done factoring because x%5E2+-1%29 is the difference of squares, so nowwww we have to factor that like this:

3x%5E2y%5E2%28x%5E2+-+1%29
3x%5E2y%5E2%28x+%2B1%29%28x+-1%29

Now it's all factored. :-)
I hope this helps. I have some factoring tutorials on youtube. If you search for PRMathChicago on youtube, you'll find the videos.