The Greatest Common Factor and Factoring by Grouping
- Factoring is the reverse process of multiplying.
- The first step in factoring a polynomial is to see whether the terms of the polynomial have a common factor. If there is one, we can write the polynomial as a product by factoring out the common factor. We will usually factor out the greatest common factor (GCF).
- The greatest common factor of a list of integers is the largest integer that is a factor of all the integers in the list.
- The greatest common factor of a list of common variables raised to powers is the variable raised to the least exponent in the list.