Question

How do you simplify `\frac { 8x ^ { 2} y ^ { 2} + 20x y ^ { 2} - 16y ^ { 2} } { 4x ^ { 2} y }`?

Answer 1

You can cancel a '4' and a 'y' out of this expression, but that's all

Explanation:

Note that each term in the expression, both in the numerator and the denominator has a 4 in it. So, since 4/4 = 1, we can cancel those:

`{8x^2y^2+20xy^2-16y^2}/{4x^2y}->{2x^2y^2+5xy^2-y^2}/{x^2y}`

Then, each term also has a 'y' in it, so we can cancel those also since y/y = 1

`{2x^2y^2+5xy^2-y^2}/{x^2y}->{2x^2y+5xy-y^2}/{x^2}`

That's all we can do since there is nothing else that is common to every term