<p>x^2y - xy^2</p>
<p>xy(x-y)</p>
<p>right?</p>
<p>ok what do you do to get to that??</p>
<p>well both values have xy common so u just pull it out (i know thats not real technical but it is what it is)</p>
<p>In that expression, you have two "terms": x^2y and -xy^2. To factor, you take out the things that they have in common. Each term has an x in it so you take that out; each term has a y in it so you take that out. Whatever you have to multiply what you take out (xy) by to get the original terms (x^2y and -xy^2) gets put into the parentheses. So x^2y - xy^2 becomes xy(x-y), because if you multiply everything inside the parentheses (x-y) by xy you get the original expression.</p>