1-Find the greatest number they have in common first.
Looking at the expression, there are three numbers: 3, 6, 9. The GCF (greatest common factor) of these is 3. Then we look at the greatest variable they have in common. There is only one variable, x. However, the 9 does not have any x attached to it, therefore we cannot factor out an x.
2-Now we have to take out a 3. When we take out the 3, we are kind of dividing everything by 3, separately. For example, when you factor out 3 from 6x^3, you get 2x^3 since you are basically just dividing the 6 by 3. Doing the same for 3x^2 and 9, we get our answer:
3- 3(2x^3-x^2+3)
Side Note: (this is to help for future questions)
If we were just factoring 6x^3-3x^2, we would factor out 3x^2. This is because 3 is the largest common factor for the coefficients and both have x attached to them. But since the degree is not the same, we take the smaller degree of x so that both numbers can be divisible by it.
