Question

Four students were asked to write an expression which has terms that have a greatest common factor of 8c. The expressions

provided by the students are shown below.

Tanya

32C+16cd

Wyatt

8c-48cd

Xavier

36c-240

Yang

8c+40

Which student wrote the correct expression?

Tanya

Wyatt

Xavier

Yang

Answer 1

Wyatt

Explanation:

it's on edge

Answer 2

Wyatt

Explanation:

Greatest common factor is a largest possible number or function that divides all values of a function without a remainder. According to the students, only Wyatt wrote the correct expression that has 8c as its greatest common factor.

According to Wyatt expression;

8c-48cd

It can be seen that 8c is the greatest function that can go in both monomials (8c and 48cd). On factoring out 8c we have;

`8c-48cd = 8c(1-6d)`

since no other values can go in the values in parenthesis (1-6d), this shows that 8c is the greatest common factor of the function hence only Wyatt wrote the correct expression compare to other students.

According to Xavier and Yang equation, c is cannot be factored from the equation thereby making both the wrong expression.

For Tanya function 32c+16cd, its greatest common factor is 16c not 8d making the equation wrong as well.