Greatest common factor
1. Finding the common factors
We want to find the factors of each term
2x⁴ and - 128x
that they both have.
In order to find them we will rewrite each term:
2x⁴ = 2 · x · x · x · x = 2 · x · x³
- 128x = -2 · 64 · x
We have that they both share: 2 and x
2. Grouping the common factors and rewriting with a parenthesis
Then, we can group 2x and keep the other factors inside a parenthesis:
2x⁴ - 128x = 2x (x³ - 64)
Answer: 2x⁴ - 128x = 2x (x³ - 64)
Is the GCF 2? -no, it is 2x