How do you factor completely $vwx + wxy - xyz$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-04-24T23:26:32

$vwx+wxy-xyz = x(vw+wy-yz)$

All of the terms are divisible by $x$ , so we can separate that out as a factor:

$vwx+wxy-xyz = x(vw+wy-yz)$

It is not possible to factor this further.

Note that if there was an additional term $-vxz$ in the original expression then we would be able to factor further:

$vwx+wxy-xyz-vxz = x(w-z)(v+y)$

Was this omitted by accident?

How do you factor completely vwx + wxy - xyzvwx + wxy - xyz?