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Prime Factors
Prime Factors

Prime Factors

Easy

Instructions

Compute the prime factors of a given natural number.

A prime number is only evenly divisible by itself and 1.

Note that 1 is not a prime number.

Example

What are the prime factors of 60?

  • Our first divisor is 2. 2 goes into 60, leaving 30.
  • 2 goes into 30, leaving 15.
    • 2 doesn't go cleanly into 15. So let's move on to our next divisor, 3.
  • 3 goes cleanly into 15, leaving 5.
    • 3 does not go cleanly into 5. The next possible factor is 4.
    • 4 does not go cleanly into 5. The next possible factor is 5.
  • 5 does go cleanly into 5.
  • We're left only with 1, so now, we're done.

Our successful divisors in that computation represent the list of prime factors of 60: 2, 2, 3, and 5.

You can check this yourself:

  • 2 * 2 * 3 * 5
  • = 4 * 15
  • = 60
  • Success!
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