It’s Saturday and I’ve survived my first week in math! Jokes aside,

we did learn some new things and reviewed some old things, I think my most useful skill learned so far is prime factorization, we learned how it can solve many different equations using Trees or Division Tables, and has helped us with bigger numbers and division and multiplication.

Number Trees work by dividing bigger numbers into factors. Turning a bigger number into two smaller numbers as it goes further down the tree, and eventually ending with a total of prime numbers. Prime numbers only divide by 1 and themselves to make 2 factors, and no more, any number multiplying with more than 1 factor is considered composite. In a tree, we keep dividing the composite numbers until it is considered prime.

Ex. Find the prime factorization of 6762

6762 -> 2, 3381, we cant divide 2 with anything but 1, so its prime, we move to 3381.

3381 -> 3, 1127, we cant divide 3 with anything but 1, so its prime, we move to 1127.

1127 -> 7, 161, we cant divide 7 with anything but 1, so its prime, we move to 161.

161 -> 7, 23. we cant divide 7 OR 23, so our number tree stops there, now to take all the prime numbers, and form the prime factorization. We had a 2, a 3, 2 7’s, and a 23, so our prime factorization is

2:3:7:7:23.

The value of prime factorization shows us the list of factors of a numbers, and can help find the Greatest common Factor, and the Lowest Common Multiple, but that’s another lesson.