What are the factors of 42?
February 20th, 2023
##1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21, 42##
##42## can be factored as a product of primes:
##42 = 2*3*7##
So combining them in all possible ways we find that the positive whole factors are:
##1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 14, 21, 42##
One way to find the factors is to try each number in increasing order. If you find a factor ##k## then ##42/k## will be a factor too, stop when ##42/k < k## :
##1, 42##
##2, 21##
##3, 14##
##color(red)(cancel(color(black)(4)))## No
##color(red)(cancel(color(black)(5)))## No
##6, 7##
Done!
