Week 6 ~ Factoring

This week we learned about factorization, lowest common multiples (LCM) and greatest common factors (GCF) this has always been a tough subject for me I have just never been good at factoring or multiplying for that matter. Your times tables are really important when it comes to factoring. If you can find all the multiples of a number in your head then your golden, but I am not ones of those people I have always had trouble remembering all the different numbers. However I have found something that works for me, the factoring tree. The factoring tree can be a bit difficult at first but once you do it it’s pretty easy. First you put the number you want to factor at the top. Let’s say number 36 then we see if it can be multiplied by 2 then we right 2 on one side 18 on the other. Next since the number 2 does not have two multiples then you do the 18 and so on until you can’t anymore. At the end you should have a picture like this.......

Then you find that you factors are 2,3,9,and 18

I also found some really cool games that are mall about factoring, here are the links....

Factor Tree Game

XFactor Game