The given expression is
[tex]496^4-9[/tex]To factorize this, we find the square root of each term.
[tex]\begin{gathered} \sqrt[]{496^4}=496^2 \\ \sqrt[]{9}=3 \end{gathered}[/tex]Then, we use the difference of perfect square which states
[tex]a^2-b^2=(a+b)(a-b)[/tex]So, we have
[tex]496^4-9=(496^2+3)(496^2-3)[/tex]