Factorising

Steve and Malinda asked the following question:

"A friend's kid got stuck on this one question and we're not sure what the answer is now! 'factorise 2n + 4'"

That's easy! Factorising means "taking out a common thing" really, in this case a common factor.

So 2n has in common with 4... the number 2.
2n can be factorised into 2 x n
4 into... 2 x 2

Factorising together:

2n + 4 = 2(n+2)

Job done!