Daily Scribe: November 10th

In class today we learned all about finding the greatest common factor of a variable expression. We started the class off with a Do Now. The Do Now was simplifying three variable expressions. The three problems were..

1. 3*x*y*x

Answer: 3x2y

2. a*b*a*b*b*-2

Answer: -2a2b3

3. 4x2+3

Answer: 103

And after the Do Now we went over the homework from that night. After correcting the homework we watched a slide show about how to find the greatest common factor of variable expressions. In order to find the GCF, we learned that you have to first find the prime factorization of the coefficient or the number. And then you write the variable in expanded form which means no exponents. Next, you find the common factors. Lastly, you re-write the variable with the number first, then the variables in alphabetical order with the exponents. We then did some problems to help us understand this better. We were given two variable expressions and we had to find the GCF of them. Remember to use the Venn Diagram to help you figure out the answer.

1. 4xy2 and 2x2y

2 * 2 * x * y * y 2 * x * x * y

(The numbers or variables in common are in bold!!)

Answer: 2xy

2. 6a2b2 and 4ab3

2 * 3 * a * a * b * b 2 * 2 * a * b * b * b

Answer: 2ab2

3. 10m3n and 15m2n2

2 * 5 * m * m * m * n 3 * b * m * m * n * n

Answer: 5m2n

Overall, today in class we learned all about finding the GCF of a variable expression which was just adding onto what we learned, well reviewed in class the other day which was finding the GCF between two numbers!