Expert: Lynn Houston - 9/3/2009

Question
484x^3 y^2 +  132x^2 y^3  -88x^4 y^5

How do I factor this? I attempted it, but was incorrect with my solution being 44x^4 y^2 (11x+3-2y^2).  Can you please help me?

Answer
You are correct, that you were incorrect ;-).  You can't factor out x^4 since you don't have x^4 or larger in each part of the equation.  The largest x you can factor out is x^2 (just like the y).  The 44 was correct so your answer would be

44x^2y^2(11x + 3y - 2x^2y^3)