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Secondary 1 | Maths
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Mayla
Mayla

Secondary 1 chevron_right Maths chevron_right Singapore

need help w/ this :) i also still don’t q understand prime factors :/
#sec1 #secondary1 #maths #primefactors

Date Posted: 4 years ago
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Eric Nicholas K
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When we express a number as a product of its prime numbers, we express them using prime numbers only. We keep decomposing the factors to their smallest form.

For example, 50 = 5 x 10. Now, 5 cannot be simplified further, but 10 can be simplified further into 2 x 5, and we know that 2 cannot be simplified further (that’s what make 2 and 5 prime numbers)

Hence = 50 = 2 x 5 x 5 = 2 x 5^2 is the number 50 expressed as a product of prime factors 2 and 5.

Similarly, decomposing 540 to its simplest form gives us 540 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 5 = 2^3 x 3^2 x 5.

Now, 405 and 1960 have common factors. The greatest one among them is known as the highest common factor (HCF), since it is common and it is the highest one among all the common ones.

But then, there are numbers which can be divided by both 405 and 1960 exactly without leaving a remainder. The smallest of them is called the lowest common multiple (LCM).