Factoring (Distributive Property in Reverse) Examples Page 2

What is the greatest common factor in the expression 4xy - 6x²

First of all, the number part will be the largest number that divides both 4 and - 6, which is 2. Now, on to the variables. The variable x occurs once in the first term and twice in the second term (it seems to be gaining momentum!), and we can only use one copy of x. The variable y occurs once in the first term but not at all in the second term, and we can't use any copies of it. Multiplying together our number part (2) and our variable part (x), we can conclude that the greatest common factor is 2x. There...now we can part with our parts.