Solution - Simplification or other simple results

Reformatting the input :

Changes made to your input should not affect the solution:

 (1): "y2"   was replaced by   "y^2". 

Step  1  :

Trying to factor by splitting the middle term

 1.1     Factoring  y²-4y+4 

The first term is,  y²  its coefficient is  1 .
The middle term is,  -4y  its coefficient is  -4 .
The last term, "the constant", is  +4 

Step-1 : Multiply the coefficient of the first term by the constant   1 • 4 = 4 

Step-2 : Find two factors of  4  whose sum equals the coefficient of the middle term, which is   -4 .

Step-3 : Rewrite the polynomial splitting the middle term using the two factors found in step 2 above,  -2  and  -2 
                     y² - 2y - 2y - 4

Step-4 : Add up the first 2 terms, pulling out like factors :
                    y • (y-2)
              Add up the last 2 terms, pulling out common factors :
                    2 • (y-2)
Step-5 : Add up the four terms of step 4 :
                    (y-2)  •  (y-2)
             Which is the desired factorization

Multiplying Exponential Expressions :

 1.2    Multiply  (y-2)  by  (y-2) 

The rule says : To multiply exponential expressions which have the same base, add up their exponents.

In our case, the common base is  (y-2)  and the exponents are :
          1 , as  (y-2)  is the same number as  (y-2)¹ 
 and   1 , as  (y-2)  is the same number as  (y-2)¹ 
The product is therefore,  (y-2)⁽¹⁺¹⁾ = (y-2)² 

Final result :

  (y - 2)2