Factoring
VocabularyFactoring is simply finding all of the factors for a given number.
Prime factorization is finding the factors of a number that are all prime. Prime numbers are numbers with ONLY two factors and will only create one rectangular array. In other words, a prime number can ONLY be divided by 1 and itself. NotesTo find all of the factors of a number, begin with the number 1 and determine what can be multiplied with 1 to get the product you're looking for (the number itself). Next, think of what can be multiplied by 2 to get the product you're looking for. Continue working in numerical order until you get to a number that you've already recorded. You should now have all of the factors.
To find the prime factors of a number, first find 2 factors of your number (the number 1 cannot be used when doing prime factorization). Then, look at your 2 factors and determine if one or both of them is not prime. If it is NOT a prime, factor it. Repeat this process until all your factors are prime. In the flower pot chart we began with the number 96. We chose the factors 12 and 8 (we could have chosen any other set of factors of 96 and we'd still get the same final answer). We then looked at the number 12 and determined that it is NOT a prime number so it needed to be factored. We chose to use the factors 6 and 2. Next, we looked at the number 6 and determined that it is NOT a prime number so it needed to be factored. We used 3 and 2. Because 3 and 2 are both prime, we could not do any further factoring on those branches. We continued this process with every factor until we ended with ALL prime numbers. |