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

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Answer 1 · 2015-05-26T18:14:32

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

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

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

Then note that:

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

and note that:

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

How do you factor 2a^2-2ab-24b^22a2−2ab−24b22a^2-2ab-24b^2?