Math Tutor Explains: What are the Factors of 496?

As your math tutor, I’m here to guide you through the different types of factors of 496. Understanding factors is key to mastering multiplication, division, and prime numbers. Here’s a breakdown:

• Factors of 496: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 31, 62, 124, 248, 496

• Sum of Factors of 496: 992

• Negative Factors of 496: -1, -2, -4, -8, -16, -31, -62, -124, -248, -496

• Prime Factors of 496: 2, 31

• Prime Factorization of 496: 2^4 × 31^1

There are two main ways a math tutor would explain how to find the factors of 496: using factor pairs and prime factorization. Let’s explore both!

As your math tutor, I’m here to help you break down factor pairs of 496 step by step!

Factor pairs of 496 are any two numbers that, when multiplied together, equal 496. The question to ask is “what two numbers multiplied together equal 496?” Every factor can be paired with another factor, and multiplying the two will result in 496.

To find the factor pairs of 496, follow these steps:

Step 1:

Find the smallest prime number that is larger than 1, and is a factor of 496. 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 496 by the smallest prime factor, in this case, 2:

496 ÷ 2 = 248

2 and 248 will make a new factor pair.

Step 3:

Repeat Steps 1 and 2, using 248 as the new focus. Find the smallest prime factor that isn’t 1, and divide 248 by that number. In this case, 2 is the new smallest prime factor:

248 ÷ 2 = 124

Remember that this new factor pair is only for the factors of 248, not 496. So, to finish the factor pair for 496, you’d multiply 2 and 2 before pairing with 124:

2 x 2 = 4

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 496:

(1, 496), (2, 248), (4, 124), (8, 62), (16, 31)

So, to list all the factors of 496: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 31, 62, 124, 248, 496

The negative factors of 496 would be: -1, -2, -4, -8, -16, -31, -62, -124, -248, -496

Now you’ve got it! A math tutor would always encourage you to practice with different numbers to reinforce your understanding of factor pairs. Try another one!

To find the prime factorization of 496, we break it down step by step until only prime factors remain. Then, we express 496 as a product of these prime factors multiplied together. Let’s go through the process and simplify it like a math tutor would!

The process of finding the prime factorization of 496 only has a few differences from the above method of finding the factors of 496. 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 496:

Step 1:

Find the smallest prime number that is larger than 1, and is a factor of 496. 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 496 by the smallest prime factor, in this case, 2

496 ÷ 2 = 248

2 becomes the first number in our prime factorization.

Step 3:

Repeat Steps 1 and 2, using 248 as the new focus. Find the smallest prime factor that isn’t 1, and divide 248 by that number. The smallest prime factor you pick for 248 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 496 are: 2, 31

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

Factors of 146 - The factors of 146 are 1, 2, 73, 146

Factors of 14 - The factors of 14 are 1, 2, 7, 14

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

Factors of 87 - The factors of 87 are 1, 3, 29, 87