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Prime Numbers are basically numbers that don't divide by anything but themselves and 1.
Example: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, etc.
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Write a number as a product of prime factors
Factors of a number are the integers (whole numbers) that divide into it without any remainders or decimals.
Factors can also be thought of as the times tables in which a number appears.
Every number have a finite amount of factors (numbers with exactly two factors are called the prime numbers).
For example:
The factors of 36 are 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 18, 36.
The prime factors of a number are the factors which are also prime numbers. In the case of 36, 2 and 3 are its prime factors.
To write 36 as a product of its prime factors, we need a combination of 2 and 3 that we can multiply together to make 36. In this case it’s:
2 x 2 x 3 x 3
Try it. Guarantee it will make 36.
Every number can be written as a unique combination of prime numbers. Prime numbers are like the atoms, the indivisible building blocks, of numbers.
A common method for figuring out what combination of prime numbers you need, is to use something called a factor tree (sometimes referred to as prime factor decomposition).
Factor Tree
This is best where you start at the top and split your number off into factors as shown:
Each time you get a prime you circle it and you finally end up with all the prime factors, which you can arrange in order.
420 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 x 7
Follow the links below to see how this topic has appeared in past exam papers
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