SOLUTION: can someone please help me with factoring this problem: 8a^2b-2ab thank you so much in advance

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Question 48000: can someone please help me with factoring this problem: 8a^2b-2ab thank you so much in advance
Answer by longjonsilver(2297) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
To factorise means to take out as much as you can that is coomon to each term. This converts what you had to a set of factors (items multiplied together).

So, +8a%5E2b-2ab+ is, fully written out: +4%2A2%2Aa%2Aa%2Ab+-+2%2Aa%2Ab+. So, look at the numbers, then the a's and then the b's.

Numbers: both terms have a 2
a's: both terms have an a
b's: both terms have a b

So, we will pull out 2ab from both terms.

This leaves 4*a in the first term and leaves just 1 in the second term (since the 2 can be thought of as 2*1).

So we have (2ab)(4a-1) and if we multiply these brackets out, we would end up with +8a%5E2b-2ab+ again.

jon