How do you factor $2a^2-2ab-24b^2$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2015-05-26T18:14:32

$2a^2-2ab-24b^2 = 2(a^2-ab-12b^2)$

$= 2(a-4b)(a+3b)$

To find this, first eliminate the common scalar factor $2$ .

Then note that:

$(a-mb)(a+nb) = a^2-(m-n)ab-(mxxn)b^2$

and note that:

$12 = 4 xx 3$ and $1 = 4 - 3$ .

How do you factor 2a^2-2ab-24b^22a^2-2ab-24b^2?