Showing posts with label factors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label factors. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Number Theory (1510)

Number theory can be described as the study of the properties of natural numbers. Natural numbers are often times called whole numbers; this includes all positive numbers. Who knew that there were so many different ways to describe and define what I have always just called numbers?

In a multiplication problem two numbers are multiplied together (factors) to produce an answer (multiple). For an example look at the math problem 2*6=12. The numbers two and six are factors of twelve, and twelve is a multiple of two and six.

Factors of a number can be found by dividing. There are numerous methods to help discover all of the factors of a particular number. The one I have discovered to be most helpful to myself is factor trees. Below are two examples of factor trees; the first shows factorization for the number 48, and the second for the number 36.