Q: What are the prime factors of the number 421,502?

Why are those the prime factors of the number 421,502?

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 421,502

	421,502
2		210,751
	73		2,887

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, 73, 2887

We can check our work by multiplying all of the prime factors together: 2 x 73 x 2,887 = 421,502

This can also be written as 2¹ x 73¹ x 2,887¹ = 421,502

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

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