Question

Simplify:
4s raised to the negative 2 power - (4t)raised to the -2 power

Answer 1

4s^2 - (4t)^-2

what about it?
Are we factoring?
If so, I see the difference of squares

= 4(s+t^-1)(s-t^-1)
or
= 4(s+1/t)(s-1/t)

Answer 2

No the question only says to simplify and the problem was 4s^-2-(4t)^-2

Answer 3

sorry, did not see that first -2

ok, factoring is simplifying

or you could so this

4/s^2 - 1/(16t^2)
= (64t^2 - s^2)/(16s^2t^2)
= (8t+s)(8t-s)/(16s^2t^2)

my revised solution for the above:
4s^-2 - 16t^-2
= 4(s^-1 + 2t^-1)(s^-1 - 2t^-1)
or
= 4(1/s + 2/t)(1/s - 2/t)