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Re: Complete Factorization?

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg7168] Re: Complete Factorization?
• From: dreece at atl.mindspring.com (Daryl Reece)
• Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 01:58:07 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: MindSpring Enterprises, Inc.
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

When I fed MMA:
Factor[2 x y-4 y^2]

It returned:
2 (x - 2 y) y

Make sure you write the product x*y as x y not xy.

Hope this helps,
Daryl
skipper at worldnet.att.net (Thomas Skipper) wrote:

>Does anyone know why MMA would not be able to completely factor this:
>2xy-4y^2?
>MMA will only factor out the 2, not the reamaining y, and consistently
>leaves only 2(xy-2y^2) Is there a reason why it won't completely
>factor this to 2y(x-2y)? The MMA book says that "Factor" performs a 
>"complete" factorization, but obviously that is not the case.
>Iguess the main question is, will MMA completely factor a polynomial
>or not, and if so, what is the command that WILL perform a complete
>factorization?