Discovering Prime Factors & Creating Factor Trees:

First, let’s start off with understanding our vocabulary.

• Prime Number: A prime number is any number that is only divisible by itself and 1. (Example: 2, 3, 5, etc.)
• Composite Number: A composite number is the opposite of a prime number. Composite numbers are whole numbers that can be divided by numbers other than itself. (Example: 4, 6, 8, etc.)
• Factors: Factors are numbers that divide into a composite number. (Example: 2 & 5 are factors of 10)

Prime Factorization:

To “factor” a number is to break down that number into smaller parts. To find the prime factorization of a number, you need to break that number down into its prime factors.

In class, we learned different methods to determine the prime factors of a whole number. The method that I thought was the most efficient was the factor tree. Although division tables worked nicely with bigger and more complicated numbers, I felt that the factor trees were easier to understand and faster to complete.

Factor Tree:

Let’s look at an example of a factor tree.

In this example, we see that we are trying the find the prime factors of 24. To start, we need to pick two numbers that can be multiplied to equal 24 (in this case, we have chosen 2 and 12). Then, you use those two numbers and do the same thing to them until you finish with prime numbers. If done correctly, this method will form a tree-like shape.