Prime factorization

Revision as of 11:33, 21 June 2006 by IntrepidMath (talk | contribs)

By the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic, every positive integer has a unique prime factorization. What is a prime factorization? It is a representation of a number in terms of powers of primes It is of the form ${p_1}^{e_1}\cdot$${p_2}^{e_2}\cdot{p_3}^{e_3}\cdots{p_k}^{e_k} = n$, where n is any natural number, the $p_{i}$ are prime numbers, and the $e_i$ are their integral exponents. Prime factorizations are important in many ways, for instance, to simplify fractions.

Example Problem