prime factorizations
Numbers broken down
Prime factorizations are the expressions of whole numbers as products of their prime factors—numbers divisible only by themselves and one.
The prime factorization of 12 is 2 × 2 × 3; for 100, it's 2 × 2 × 5 × 5.
Every integer greater than one has exactly one prime factorization, a principle called the fundamental theorem of arithmetic.
Finding prime factorizations becomes computationally difficult with very large numbers, which is why modern encryption relies on this difficulty.
- exponentsRaised power indicators
- integersNumbers without fractional components
- divisorsNumbers dividing another evenly
- irreducibleCannot be simplified further
- composite numbersIntegers with smaller divisors
decomposition · indivisible · algebra · products · building blocks · Euclid's algorithm · least common multiple · natural numbers · greatest common divisor · cryptography · rational numbers · number theory · divisions · modular systems · elements · multiplicands · composite · arithmetics