Factor the Expression 3y + 6y: Finding the Greatest Common Factor

Question

We factored the expression 3y+6y 3y + 6y into its basic terms:

3y+6y 3\cdot y + 6\cdot y

Take out the greatest common factor from the factored expression.

Step-by-Step Solution

We start with the expression 3y+6y 3y + 6y .

First, we notice that both terms share a common factor of y y .

So, we factor out y y from each term:

3y=y3 3y = y\cdot 3 and 6y=y6 6y = y\cdot 6 .

We can also see that 6 6 can be factored to 23 2\cdot3 .
Now when we look at the expression we can see that both y y and 3 3 are the common factor: 3y+23y \blue3\cdot \orange y+2\cdot\blue 3\cdot \orange y

This allows us to rewrite the expression as 3y(1+2) 3y\left(1+2\right) , as nothing is left from the first term, and so we keep there a 1 1 , and 2 2 is left from the second term.

Thus, the factored form is 3y(1+2) 3y\left(1+2\right)

Answer

3y(1+2) 3y\left(1+2\right)