Math Tutor Explains: What are the Factors of 1997?

As your math tutor, I’m here to guide you through the different types of factors of 1997. So, what are the factors of 1997?

• Factors of 1997: 1, 1997

• Sum of Factors of 1997: 1998

• Negative Factors of 1997: -1, -1997

• Prime Factors of 1997: 1, 1997

• Prime Factorization of 1997: 1997

There are two ways to find the factors of 1997: using factor pairs and using prime factorization.

Factor pairs of 1997 are any two numbers that, when multiplied together, equal 1997. The question I would ask as a math tutor to guide you is: “what two numbers multiplied together equal 1997?” Every factor can be paired with another factor and multiplying the two will result in 1997.

In this case, we can see that 1997 is a prime number. By definition, a prime number is a number that doesn’t have any other factors other than itself and 1.

So, 1997 only has one factor pair:

(1, 1997)

If you also consider negative factors, there is also a second factor pair:

(-1, -1997)

Prime factorization is when you break down the factors of 1997 to just the prime factors and expressing 1997 as a product of those prime factors. Let’s go through the process and simplify it like a math tutor would!

In this case, because 1997 is a prime number, we can simply state the primary factorization as 1997.

For most numbers, we would take the smallest prime factor that is larger than 1 to start to break down the focus number. In this case, the smallest prime factor larger than 1 is 1997.

1997 ÷ 1997 = 1

If we divide 1997 by 1997, we simply get 1, which can’t be broken down any further.

So, the prime factorization of 1997 is just 1997.

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

Factors of 139 - The factors of 139 are 1, 139

Factors of 64 - The factors of 64 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64

Factors of 115 - The factors of 115 are 1, 5, 23, 115

Factors of 40 - The factors of 40 are 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20, 40