Q: What are the prime factors of the number 131,465,216?

A: 2, 17, 59

Why are those the prime factors of the number 131,465,216?

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 131,465,216

	131,465,216

2		65,732,608

	2		32,866,304

		2		16,433,152

			2		8,216,576

				2		4,108,288

					2		2,054,144

						2		1,027,072

							2		513,536

								2		256,768

									2		128,384

										2		64,192

											2		32,096

												2		16,048

													2		8,024

														2		4,012

															2		2,006

																2		1,003

																	17		59

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:

2, 17, 59

We can check our work by multiplying all of the prime factors together: 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 17 x 59 = 131,465,216

This can also be written as 2¹⁷ x 17¹ x 59¹ = 131,465,216

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