PRIME FACTORS AND PRIME FACTORIZATION
Recall that a prime number is a number greater than 1
and having no factors except 1 and itself
Prime Factors
The factors of 12 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12 of which
only 2 and 3 are prime numbers. Prime numbers 2 and 3 are said to be prime
factors of 12
Expressing a number as a product of its factors is
called factorization. Say, if we write 12=3 x 4 then 12 has been
factorized in terms 3 and 4.
Other factorizations of 12 are:
(i)12 = 6x2 =2x3x2
(ii)12 = 4x3 =2x2x3
In all the above factorizations we always end up with
one factorization i.e.
2x2x3 this is called prime factorization.
Conclusively, it can be stated that, when a natural number is
expressed as a product of its prime factors then the factorization of the
number is called complete prime factorization.
Other examples of prime factorization:
(i) 24=2x2x2x3
(ii) 9=3x3
(iii) 14=2x7
(iv) 18= 2x3x3 and so on.
Each of the above is a prime factorization for the
given number.