What are the Factors of 26?

The following are the different types of factors of 26:

• Factors of 26: 1, 2, 13, 26

• Sum of Factors of 26: 42

• Negative Factors of 26: -1, -2, -13, -26

• Prime Factors of 26: 2, 13

• Prime Factorization of 26: 2^1 × 13^1

There are two ways to find the factors of 26: using factor pairs, and using prime factorization.

Factor pairs of 26 are any two numbers that, when multiplied together, equal 26. The question to ask is “what two numbers multiplied together equal 26?” Every factor can be paired with another factor, and multiplying the two will result in 26.

To find the factor pairs of 26, follow these steps:

Step 1:

Find the smallest prime number that is larger than 1, and is a factor of 26. For reference, the first prime numbers to check are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13. In this case, the smallest factor that’s a prime number larger than 1 is 2.

Step 2:

Divide 26 by the smallest prime factor, in this case, 2:

26 ÷ 2 = 13

2 and 13 will make a new factor pair.

Step 3:

Repeat Steps 1 and 2, using 13 as the new focus. Find the smallest prime factor that isn’t 1, and divide 13 by that number. In this case, 13 is the new smallest prime factor:

13 ÷ 13 = 1

Remember that this new factor pair is only for the factors of 13, not 26. So, to finish the factor pair for 26, you’d multiply 2 and 13 before pairing with 1:

2 x 13 = 26

Step 4:

Repeat this process until there are no longer any prime factors larger than one to divide by. At the end, you should have the full list of factor pairs.

Here are all the factor pairs for 26:

(1, 26), (2, 13)

So, to list all the factors of 26: 1, 2, 13, 26

The negative factors of 26 would be: -1, -2, -13, -26

To find the Prime factorization of 26, we break down all the factors of 26 until we are left with only prime factors. We then express n as a product of multiplying the prime factors together.

The process of finding the prime factorization of 26 only has a few differences from the above method of finding the factors of 26. Instead of ensuring we find the right factor pairs, we continue to factor each step until we are left with only the list of smallest prime factors greater than 1.

Here are the steps for finding the prime factorization of 26:

Step 1:

Find the smallest prime number that is larger than 1, and is a factor of 26. For reference, the first prime numbers to check are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13. In this case, the smallest factor that’s a prime number larger than 1 is 2.

Step 2:

Divide 26 by the smallest prime factor, in this case, 2

26 ÷ 2 = 13

2 becomes the first number in our prime factorization.

Step 3:

Repeat Steps 1 and 2, using 13 as the new focus. Find the smallest prime factor that isn’t 1, and divide 13 by that number. The smallest prime factor you pick for 13 will then be the next prime factor. If you keep repeating this process, there will be a point where there will be no more prime factors left, which leaves you with the prime factors for prime factorization.

So, the unique prime factors of 26 are: 2, 13

Practice your factoring skills by exploring how to factor other numbers, like the ones below:

Factors of 74 - The factors of 74 are 1, 2, 37, 74

Factors of 15 - The factors of 15 are 1, 3, 5, 15

Factors of 9 - The factors of 9 are 1, 3, 9

Factors of 50 - The factors of 50 are 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50