Question 25044
Look at 3a^2-12a.
The 1st thing you look for in factoring is a common factor.
Bothe terms of your problem have a factor of 3 and a factor of "a".
So you factor out the common factor of 3a to get;
 3a(a-4)
You cannot factor this further.
Look at 4a^2-16
The common factor is "4", so you get the following:
 4(a^2-4)
The 2nd thing you look for in factoring is the difference
of squares.  You have that in the expression x^2-4.
So you must factor futher and get the following:
 4(a-2)(a+2)
You cannot factor this further.

Cheers,
Stan H.