2006-11-07 08:31:57 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
It's a set of prime numbers where if you multiply them all together, you get the original number.
For example, take 30. The prime factorization is 2*3*5 because all three numbers are prime and if you multiply them all together you get 30. Many composites will have the same prime number multiple times... for example 24's factorization is 2*2*2*3, or 2^3*3.
It's pretty useful for finding other, non- prime factors because you can use the primes as building blocks and combine them to form other factors.
2006-11-07 08:38:06 · answer #1 · answered by Kyrix 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Prime factorization is expressing the number as the product of prime numbers. Each number has a unique prime factorization.
For a description of how to find the prime factorization, check out the link below.
Here are a few examples of the prime factorization of numbers:
6 = 2 * 3
12 = 2² * 3
43 = 43
143 = 11 * 13
2006-11-07 08:42:58 · answer #2 · answered by Kylie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that you find the factors of a number such that you only use prime numbers:
Such as prime factorization of 120 =
2 * 2 * 2 * 3 * 5
The way to find this is to keep factoring smaller and smaller:
120 = 10 * 12 = 2 * 5 * 3 * 4 = 2 * 5 * 3 * 2 * 2
Now you can rearrange them in order.
This only gets complicated when you are asked to prime factor something like: 493
You start checking all the easy prime factors: 2 3 5 7 11 and none of them will divide evenly into 493. The trick is you have to check every prime number up to the sqrt of that number or in this case 22.3. As this one turns out, you would have found it is divisible by 17 before you got to 22.3 and the answer is 17 * 29. Those are mean though.
If you were given 599 then you would check all the primes up to sqrt(599) = 24.47 or up to 23. When you find none, then you can conclude that the given number is itself a prime which 599 is.
2006-11-07 08:41:42 · answer #3 · answered by Will 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Every number can be expressed as the product of prime
numbers. For example 1050 = 2 x 3 x 5 x 5 x 7. It's like breaking a number down into its smallest building blocks.
2006-11-07 08:41:41 · answer #4 · answered by banjuja58 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Wow this is odd, for you! You do a factor tree and then in the end you should have the prime factorization.
2006-11-07 08:40:01 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
when you have completely factored something so that all the numbers left are prime numbers.
2006-11-07 08:35:57 · answer #6 · answered by moonfreak♦ 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Fundamental theorem of arithmetic (really!) says that every positive whole number can be uniquely factored into primes.
2006-11-07 08:38:18 · answer #7 · answered by modulo_function 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
It is when you completely factor out the numbers.
2006-11-07 08:36:59 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is a math thing that breaks down a #.
2006-11-07 08:38:18 · answer #9 · answered by unicycleguy1 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋