Factors and Multiples: Prime Numbers and Prime Factors, Index Forms and Common Factors, HCF and LCM

In this tutorial, we shall look at a few things:

I. Prime numbers and prime factors.

II. Index forms and common factors.

III. Highest common factors (HCF).

IV. Lowest common multiples (LCM).

Objectives

I. To be able to define and identify prime numbers.

II. To have a better understanding of what factors are – and also find the factors of a given whole number.

III. To be able to express a number as a product of its factors in index form, and also find the highest common factor (HCF) of two or more numbers.

IV. To know what a multiple is; to write down multiples of a given number, and find the lowest common multiple of two or more whole numbers.

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Keywords

I. Factor – A number that divides into another number without a remainder.

II. Prime numbers – These are numbers that have only two factors: 1 and itself.

III. Prime Factors – These are simply factors that are prime.

IV. Highest Common Factor (HCF) – The biggest number that will divide two or more numbers.

V. Multiple – The result of multiplying factors together.

VI. Lowest Common Multiple (LCM) –The smallest number that two or more numbers will divide; it is the smallest of the common multiples of a given set of numbers.

VII. Divisible – Able to be divided without a remainder.

VIII. Index – Index means power.