Question

Factor out the coefficient of the variable. 1/3y-3/2

Answer 1

`(1)/(3) \left(y-(9)/(2) \right)\\`

Explanation:

Remeber that factoring is the same thing as applying the distributive property in reverse. Take the example 3(y + 4). To distribute, we multiply each term by the factor 3 to get the expression 3y + 12. To factor out the 3, we do the opposite, dividing the 3y and the 12 by 3, and pulling the 3 out front to again get 3(y + 4).

Here, we'd like to factor out 1/3 from the expression
`(1)/(3)y-(3)/(2)`. Dividing each term by 1/3 (the same thing as multiplying each term by 3), we get the expression
`y-(9)/(2)`. Remember though, the 1/3 never went away, we just pulled it out of the expression, so our full answer is

`(1)/(3) \left(y-(9)/(2) \right)\\`