Factor 2a^2-32

$2 a^{2} - 32$

Step 1

Factor $2$ out of $2 a^{2} - 32$ .

Factor $2$ out of $2 a^{2}$ .

$2 (a^{2}) - 32$

Factor $2$ out of $- 32$ .

$2 a^{2} + 2 \cdot - 16$

Factor $2$ out of $2 a^{2} + 2 \cdot - 16$ .

$2 (a^{2} - 16)$

Step 2

Rewrite $16$ as $4^{2}$ .

$2 (a^{2} - 4^{2})$

Step 3

Factor.

Since both terms are perfect squares, factor using the difference of squares formula, $a^{2} - b^{2} = (a + b) (a - b)$ where $a = a$ and $b = 4$ .

$2 ((a + 4) (a - 4))$

Remove unnecessary parentheses.

$2 (a + 4) (a - 4)$