Prime Factorization

U02_L1_T3_we3 Prime Factorization

Write the prime factorization
of 75.

Write your answer using
exponential notation.

So we have a couple of
interesting things here.

Prime factorization, and they
say exponential notation.

We'll worry about the
exponential notation later.

So the first thing we have to
worry about is what is even a

prime number?

And just as a refresher, a
prime number is a number

that's only divisible by itself
and one, so examples of

prime numbers-- let me write
some numbers down.

Prime, not prime. Not prime.

So 2 is a prime number.

It's only divisible
by 1 and 2.

3 is another prime number.

Now, 4 is not prime,
because this is

divisible by 1, 2 and 4.

We could keep going.

5, well, 5 is only divisible
by 1 and 5, so 5 is prime.

6 is not prime, because it's
divisible by 2 and 3.

I think you get the
general idea.

You move to 7, 7 is prime.

It's only divisible
by 1 and 7.

8 is not prime.

9 you might be tempted to say
is prime, but remember, it's

also divisible by 3,
so 9 is not prime.

Prime is not the same thing
as odd numbers.

Then if you move to 10,
10 is also not prime,

divisible by 2 and 5.

11, it's only divisible
by 1 and 11, so 11 is

then a prime number.

And we could keep going
on like this.

People have written computer
programs looking for the

highest prime and all of that.

So now that we know what
a prime is, a prime

factorization is breaking up
a number, like 75, into a

product of prime numbers.

So let's try to do that.

So we're going to start with
75, and I'm going to do it

using what we call a
factorization tree.

So we first try to find just the
smallest prime number that

will go into 75.

Now, the smallest prime
number is 2.

Does 2 go into 75?

Well, 75 is an odd number, or
the number in the ones place,

this 5, is an odd number.

5 is not divisible by 2, so
2 will not go into 75.

So then we could try 3.

Does 3 go into 75?

Well, 7 plus 5 is 12.

12 is divisible by 3, so
3 will go into it.

So 75 is 3 times
something else.

And if you've ever dealt with
change, you know that if you

have three quarters, you have
75 cents, or if you have 3

times 25, you have 75.

So this is 3 times 25.

And you can multiply this out
if you don't believe me.

Multiple out 3 times 25.

Now, is 25 divisible by--
you can give up on 2.

If 75 wasn't divisible by 2,
25's not going to be divisible

by 2 either.

But maybe 25 is divisible
by 3 again.

So if you take the digits
2 plus 5, you get 7.

7 is not divisible by 3, so 25
will not be divisible by 3.

So we keep moving up: 5.

Is 25 divisible by 5?

Well, sure.

It's 5 times 5.

So 25 is 5 times 5.

And we're done with our prime
factorization because now we

have all prime numbers here.

So we can write that 75
is 3 times 5 times 5.

So 75 is equal to 3
times 5 times 5.

We can say it's 3 times 25.

25 is 5 times 5.

3 times 25, 25 is 5 times 5.

So this is a prime
factorization, but they want

us to write our answer using
exponential notation.

So that just means, if we have
repeated primes, we can write

those as an exponent.

So what is 5 times 5?

5 times 5 is 5 multiplied
by itself two times.

This is the same thing as
5 to the second power.

So if we want to write our
answer using exponential

notation, we could say this is
equal to 3 times 5 to the

second power, which is the
same thing as 5 times 5.