Question

7. How many prime factors does the number 124 have?

Answer 1

It a popular math theorem, that any natural number can be factored out into prime numbers. For example the number 24 is factored as 2³*3, so its prime factors are 2 and 3.

In this case, we want to factor 124. We start by noticing that 124 is an even number, therefore, the first prime factor we try is 2. Next, we divide 124 by 2. We get

`(124)/(2)=62`

which is again an even number. This means that we can again divide by 2. We do so

`(62)/(2)=31`

Note that 31 is a prime number. So we can't continue dividing. Then

`124=2\cdot2\cdot31=2^2\cdot31`

So it has 2 different prime factors