Question

A state lottery commission analyzes the ticket purchasing patterns of its citizens. The following expression is developed to help officials calculate the likely number of people who will buy tickets for a certain size jackpot.

81a^2-36b^2
Factor the expression completely.

Answer 1

9(9a^2-4)

9(3a+2)(3a-2)

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

So,

We first factor out the GCF.


`9(9a^2-4b^2)`

Now, we notice that the expression is a difference of two perfect squares.

`9(3a+2b)(3a-2b)`

The expression is now factored completely.