Consider the monomials 15x^2, y^2 and 6x^3
a. Factor the monomials.
b. What factors of these monomials are common factors?
c. Find the greatest common factor of 15x^2, y^2 and 6x^3
I'm having a really hard time with this.
This was posted last week.
https://www.jiskha.com/questions/1758102/Consider-the-monomials-15x-2-y-2-and-6x-3-a-Factor-the-monomials-b-What-factors
I can help you with that! Let's break it down step by step.
a. To factor the monomials, we need to express them as a product of their factors.
For the monomial 15x^2, we can factor it as 15 * x * x. So the factored form is 15x * x, or 15x^2.
For the monomial y^2, it is already in its factored form since y^2 cannot be further factored.
For the monomial 6x^3, we can factor it as 6 * x * x * x. So the factored form is 6x * x * x, or 6x^3.
b. Now, let's identify the common factors among these monomials.
Comparing the factors of each monomial, we can see that the common factors are x^2. That means x^2 can be factored out from each monomial.
c. To find the greatest common factor, we need to determine the highest power of each common factor.
In this case, the common factor is x^2. Among the three monomials, the highest power of x^2 is x^2 itself. We do not have any common factors for the coefficient (15, 1, and 6), as they are not all divisible by the same number.
Therefore, the greatest common factor of 15x^2, y^2, and 6x^3 is x^2.
I hope this explanation helps! Let me know if you have any further questions.