1. y4 - 2y2 - y3
First we want to look for something that is common to all the terms...we want to take out the GCF . In this case, we can take out y2 from each term, like this...
= y2( y2 - 2 - y ) Notice how distributing y2 gets us back to the original expression.
= y2( y2 - y - 2 )
There are three terms remaining...we cannot factor it as a difference of squares.
( A difference of squares is always in the form a2 - b2 , just two terms. )
So we need to think of two numbers that add to -1 and multiply to -2 .
How about -2 and +1 ? So our expression factors like this...
= y2( y - 2 )( y + 1 )
2. x2 - xy - x + y Nothing is common to all the terms. Let's rearrange it like this...
= x2 - x - xy + y Now we can take out x from the first two terms.
= x(x - 1) - xy + y Notice that distributing the x makes the previous expression.
Now let's take out -y from the last two terms.
= x(x - 1) - y(x - 1) Again, check this with distrubuting.
Now...there is a common factor in the remaining terms. It is (x - 1) . Let's factor that out.
= (x - 1)(x - y)