Q: What are the prime factors of the number 120,171?

Why are those the prime factors of the number 120,171?

Prime factors are the prime numbers that can be multipled together to equal the original number. You find the factors by dividing by prime numbers. It is best shown by creating a Factor Tree.

Factor Tree for the number 120,171

	120,171
3		40,057
	41		977

The numbers in bold above are the prime factors. If there are multiples, you only count them one time. This leads us to our prime factors of:

3, 41, 977

We can check our work by multiplying all of the prime factors together: 3 x 41 x 977 = 120,171

This can also be written as 3¹ x 41¹ x 977¹ = 120,171

If you would like to know more, or need additional explanation, please review our prime factorization explanation.

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