# Thread:

1. ## Factor Completely

$<br /> x^4 - y^4 = (x^2 + y^2)(x^2 - y^2)<br /> \\ = (x^2 + y^2)(x + y)(x - y)<br />$

I'm ok with this until the last part. It looks like as the second term is a difference of squares it has been factored as well. I'm just a bit fuzzy on the use of brackets here. Can anyone help?

Thanks.

2. Yes, each factorisation is a difference of two squares...
{"extraction_info": {"found_math": true, "script_math_tex": 0, "script_math_asciimath": 0, "math_annotations": 0, "math_alttext": 0, "mathml": 0, "mathjax_tag": 0, "mathjax_inline_tex": 0, "mathjax_display_tex": 0, "mathjax_asciimath": 0, "img_math": 0, "codecogs_latex": 1, "wp_latex": 0, "mimetex.cgi": 0, "/images/math/codecogs": 0, "mathtex.cgi": 0}, "config": {"markdown_headings": true, "markdown_code": true, "boilerplate_config": {"ratio_threshold": 0.18, "absolute_threshold": 10, "end_threshold": 15, "enable": true}, "remove_buttons": true, "remove_image_figures": true, "remove_link_clusters": true, "table_config": {"min_rows": 2, "min_cols": 3, "format": "github"}, "remove_chinese": true, "remove_edit_buttons": true, "extract_latex": true}, "english_confidence": 0.9802430272102356, "perplexity_flag": "middle"}