Harley1980 wrote:
meshackb wrote:
Quant is not my strength, so this question may seem a bit silly, but when a question asks "how many prime factors does X have?" In general, does it mean unique prime factors?
For example the prime factors of 48, {(2^4), 3}
If a question asks, how many prime factors does 48 have? Would you answer two, or five? Will a question specifically ask for Unique Prime Factors if that's what it is looking for?
Hello
meshackbWhen task asks about prime factors of a number, you only need distinct values.
So 48 has two prime factors: 2 and 3
Hey
Harley1980, can you provide an official example that deals with prime factors, and the official answer only means unique (without stating "unique" or "different" somewhere in the problem)? I was taking a look through
MGMAT's Number Properties book (5th ed) and when they talk about counting prime factors they state that the total number of prime factors of 252 is 5 (2,2,3,3,7) (top of pg 96). On the previous page they talk about the different ways that factor questions can be asked, and they explicitly state "different prime factors" or "unique prime factors" when the answer should only be 2,3,7 - for the previous example. There are also some previous examples in the book when they mention prime factors they explicitly state all of the multiplicities.
I'm coming from an academic math background, so my understanding of prime factorization stems from that.