Building Blocks of Math

Math 

Matters
By: Ginger Stiner

Every week in my Teaching Math class this summer we are given a list of objectives; things that math teachers must be knowledgeable about and capable of doing in order to teach math to our future students.  This week, among other things, we are to be able to identify when a number is prime or composite and find prime factorization of a number.

I think of it this way:

Numbers are the building blocks of math!

 

What?

There are many ways to show a number and BIG numbers are made up of smaller numbers!  We can divide numbers up into smaller parts. Sometimes these smaller numbers are easier to work with and can tell us things about the big number we started with.

How?

One way to break down a number is called Factorization.

Numbers can be expressed by their factors.

Factor- a part of a multiplication problem

Product- the answer to a multiplication problem

We can show factorization through something called a factor tree.

A Factor tree looks like this:

                            

                                 

Here is a helpful video:

                                    

Important!

It is important to remember that EVERY number has factors!

The amount of factors a number has determines if a number is a prime number or a composite number.

What?

Prime- The only factors of that number are 1 and itself.  EXAMPLE: 7

7 is prime because the only two numbers that go into 7 without leaving any remainder are 1 and the number itself, 7.

Composite- The factors of that number are MORE than just 1 and the number.  EXAMPLE: 8

8 is composite because more than just one and 8 can go into 8 without leaving any remainder. 2 and 4 can also go into 8.