What is the greatest common factor of the terms of the polynomial below? 8x4 – 12x3 + 20x2 a 8x^3 b 4x^2 c 2x^2 d 4x^3

The answer would be B, 4x^2

Explanation: the greatest common factor is the factor of a polynomial that can be factored out leaving the rest of the expression unfactorable.

8x4-12x3+20x2
4x2(2x^2-6x+5)

This means that 2x2-6x+5 is no longer factorable.

The greatest common factor is 4x².  The coefficients are multiples of 4 (2 isn't the largest, and 8 is too large.  The term that has the lowest degree has x to the 2nd power, so we know it can be pulled out of the expression.  When 4x² is pulled out, the expression looks like this:



Your answer should be B, 4x².