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Let's say a mother in your neighborhood hires you to babysit for $75 a night, and you can babysit four nights of the week. Of course, to figure out your weekly income, we would multiply the nightly income by the number of nights you can work:
75 * 4 = 300
You'll make $300 in one week! Not bad.
Factors are the numbers you multiply together. In this multiplication sentence, 75 and 4 are the factors. 300 is the product, which is the answer we get when we multiply two factors together.
So, in this multiplication sequence, 3 * 4 = 12, 3 and 4 are the factors, and 12 is the product.
Factor pairs are pairs of factors we multiply together to get a certain product. Let's go back to our second multiplication sentence: 3 * 4 = 12.
4 and 3 is one factor pair that can give us a product of 12. But we can also write the following multiplication sentences that give a product of 12:
So, the factor pairs that will give us a product of 12 are 1 and 12, 2 and 6, and 3 and 4.
Generally speaking, the larger a number is, the more factor pairs it will have. This isn't true for prime numbers because their only factor pairs are 1 and the number itself. For example, 937 is a large number, but it's also a prime number. So, its only factor pair is 1 and 937.
Let's determine the factor pairs for 40. We can write the following multiplication sentences to get a product of 40:
So, 40's factor pairs are 1 and 40; 2 and 20; 4 and 10; 5 and 8.
Up for a challenge? Let's try a 3-digit number. We'll find the factor pairs for 100:
100's factor pairs are 1 and 100; 2 and 50; 4 and 25; 5 and 20; 10 and 10.
What about 0? Let's look at the multiplication sequences that give us a product of 0:
You get the picture. 0 has an infinite number of factor pairs because any number times 0 equals 0!
In multiplication, the numbers we multiply together are factors. The answer we get when we multiply is the product. Two numbers that we can multiply together to get a certain product make a factor pair.
 |
| Terms | Explanations |
|---|---|
| Factors | the numbers you multiply together |
| Product | the answer we get when we multiply two factors together |
| Factor pairs | pairs of factors we multiply together to get a certain product |
When this lesson is over, you should be able to:
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High School Algebra II: Help and Review26 chapters | 296 lessons
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