CHAPTER4 Factors and Multiples
In This Chapter
- How to recognize mul-
tiples of a number - Finding factors of a
number - Identifying prime and
composite numbers - Prime factorization and
how to find it
In any multiplication problem, the numbers being multiplied
are factors and the result of the multiplication is the product.
We’ve used that language in earlier chapters. You can also say
that the product is a multiple of each of the factors. It’s time
to take a step beyond the vocabulary now and look at factors
and multiples in more detail. It may seem odd to give a whole
chapter to multiplication, but ideas that have to do with
factors and multiples come up in so many situations that it’s
wise to take the time to look at all of them.
In this chapter, we’ll look at numbers that have many factors
and those that have few. You’ll practice different ways to find
all the possible factors of a number and work at expressing a
number as the product of factors, using the smallest possible
factors. Exponents will show up again to help you write those
factors efficiently. All this talk about factors will lead to two
important ideas: the greatest common factor and the least
common multiple of two or more numbers.