How do you factor completely $56a^2b^3 - 35ab$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2017-11-10T21:24:14

See a solution process below:

We can factor each term as:

$56a^2b^3 = 2 xx 2 xx 2 xx 7 xx a xx a xx b xx b xx b$

$35ab = 5 xx 7 xx a xx b$

The common factors are in read:

$56a^2b^3 = 2 xx 2 xx 2 xx color(red)(7) xx color(red)(a) xx a xx color(red)(b) xx b xx b$

$35ab = 5 xx color(red)(7) xx color(red)(a) xx color(red)(b)$

Therefore the common factor is:

$color(red)(7) xx color(red)(a) xx color(red)(b) = color(red)(7ab)$

We can now write the expression as the product of the common factor and the remaining factors for each term:

$color(red)(7ab)([2 xx 2 xx 2 xx a xx b xx b] - 5) =>$

$color(red)(7ab)(8ab^2 - 5)$

How do you factor completely 56a^2b^3 - 35ab56a^2b^3 - 35ab?