How do you simplify (5y^2-20)/(y^2+4y+4)?

1 Answer
Mar 29, 2018

\frac{5(y - 2)}{(y+2)}

Explanation:

Expand the numerator... (you'll see why soon)

5y^2 - 20

5(y^2 - 4)

5(y - 2)(y+2)

Expand the denominator...

(y + 2)(y + 2)

Now your expression looks like this in expanded form...

\frac{5(y - 2)(y + 2)}{(y+2)(y+2)}

As you can see, you can cancel the (y+2) from both the numerator and the denominator.

\frac{5(y - 2)}{(y+2)} \leftarrow this is the simplified form