My wife's taking an intro-to-algebra online course and got marked off for what seemed like an ambiguous definition. I'm curious what people's intuitions are.

Question was: what is the factoring of the term 4x²y?

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@nebusj if I wanted to be pedantic, $$2^2\cdot x^2 \cdot y$$, but I'd go with your third option otherwise. But really, what did her textbook say?

@tpfto The online quiz went with the third option. The bizarre thing is the video introducing this, before the quiz, did a similar problem as 12 times x times y times y, and I can't figure a reason to leave that 12 like that.

I'm not surprised there's inconsistencies since the online videos come from at least three instructors but I'm shocked this stuff wasn't flagged and fixed the first time the course ran. Especially since this is supposed to be for students prepping for placement exams.

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