Definitions. Algebra is a sort of language, and has its own vocabulary. Click each vocabulary word below to learn more. Factoring - Factors and multiples. Factoring - Factors and multiples. Factoring - Factors and multiples. A factor is simply a number that is multiplied to get a product. Factoring a number means taking the number apart to find its factors--it's like multiplying in reverse. Here are lists of all the factors of 16, 20, and 45. Factors are either composite numbers or prime numbers.
A prime number has only two factors, one and itself, so it cannot be divided evenly by any other numbers. Here's a list of prime numbers up to 100. You can see that none of these numbers can be factored any further. PRIME NUMBERS to 100 A composite number is any number that has more than two factors. By the way, zero and one are considered neither prime nor composite numbers-they're in a class by themselves! COMPOSITE NUMBERS up to 20 You can write any composite number as a product of prime factors. 84 divided by 2 is 42. 42 divided by 2 is 21. Factoring - Factors and multiples.