High School

Find the complete factored form of the polynomial:

[tex]-40 m^6 n^6 + 25 m^2 n^5[/tex]

Enter the correct answer.

Answer :

We want to factor completely the expression

[tex]$$-40m^6 n^6 + 25m^2 n^5.$$[/tex]

Step 1. Factor out the Greatest Common Factor (GCF):

First, notice that both terms have common factors of [tex]$m^2$[/tex] and [tex]$n^5$[/tex]. In addition, both coefficients [tex]$-40$[/tex] and [tex]$25$[/tex] have a common factor of [tex]$5$[/tex]. Hence, the greatest common factor is [tex]$5m^2 n^5$[/tex].

However, to simplify the appearance, we can also choose to factor out a negative sign. For now, we factor out [tex]$-5m^2 n^5$[/tex].

Dividing each term by [tex]$-5m^2 n^5$[/tex], we have:

- For the term [tex]$-40 m^6n^6$[/tex]:

[tex]$$\frac{-40m^6n^6}{-5m^2n^5} = 8m^4 n,$$[/tex]

- For the term [tex]$25 m^2n^5$[/tex]:

[tex]$$\frac{25m^2n^5}{-5m^2n^5} = -5.$$[/tex]

Thus, the expression becomes

[tex]$$-5m^2 n^5 \left(8m^4 n - 5\right).$$[/tex]

Step 2. Final Answer:

The completely factored form of the given polynomial is

[tex]$$-5m^2 n^5 \left(8m^4 n - 5\right).$$[/tex]

This is the answer in its complete factored form.