Which of the expressions is equivalent to the expression?
Which of the expressions is equivalent to the expression?
To solve this problem, we'll focus on factorization by grouping:
Now, let's work through each step:
Step 1:
Observe that we can reorganize the expression to facilitate grouping:
.
Step 2:
Group into pairs: .
Within each pair, extract common factors:
, noticing that each group factors nicely.
Step 3:
Since both terms now have a common factor of , we can factor it out:
.
Therefore, the expression is equivalent to .
This matches choice 1: .