Factors are the numbers you multiply together to get another number.
For example, since 2 times 3 is equal to 6,
2 and 3 are said to be factors of 6.
Prime factorization is therefore, finding which prime numbers multiply together to make the original number.
Let us try this out. What are the prime factors of 12?
It is best to start working from the smallest prime number, which is 2. 12 divided by 2 is equal to 6.
So 12 can be divided evenly by 2.
6 is not a prime number. So we need to carry on. Let us divide 6 by 2. 6 divided by 2 is equal to 3.
Since 3 is a prime number, so we have the prime factorization of 12 equal to 2 times 2 times 3. As you can see, every factor is a prime number.
Let us look at another example.