The factors of 144 are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 16, 18, 24, 36, 48, 72, 144
Composite Numbers
To multiply with more than two factors, you can use at least three numbers that it would take to multiply to get the larger number. For example, the number 50, with two factors can be 1X50, 2X25, or 5X10. But if you are asked for more than two factors, you could do this: 2X5X5 Factor 72 using more than two factors: 2X2X2X3X3
All numbers that only have one and itself as factors are prime. Therefore, to tell if a number is prime simply find it's factors. If it has more than two factors than it is not a prime number.
LCM is the multiple of the highest power of prime factors of two or more numbers. Since prime numbers have no other factors than themselves, the LCM of two or more prime numbers is their product. As an example, the LCM of 3, 5, and 53 is 3 x 5 x 53 = 795.
72 is a composite number. A prime number has exactly 2 factors, 1 and the number itself. All even numbers greater than 2 (numbers ending in 2, 4, 6, 8, or 0) are composites because they have more than 2 factors.
A composite number has more than two factors.
All numbers have factors. Some numbers are larger than others. The largest number in a set of factors will be the greatest factor.
"Prime" numbers
Yes. All non-prime numbers are composite numbers, which simply means a number has one or more prime factors other than 1 and the number itself.
There is no LCM for less than two numbers. LCM is the multiple of the highest power of prime factors in two or more numbers. Example: LCM of 9, 15, and 25 is 225, which is the multiple of the highest power of prime factors in 9, 15, and 25 (32 x 52).
The best way to get lots of factors is to ensure that no prime factors occur more than once. If this is the case, and there are n prime factors altogether, then there will be 2n factors in total. * In fact you can get more factors by repeating some of the small prime factors. For example, 210 = 2 x 3 x 5 x 7 has 16 factors, but 180 = 22 x 32 x 5 has 18 factors. * There is more info on my website at www.dansmath.com about supercomposite numbers and their prime factorization structure.
The numbers 60, 72, 84, 90, and 96 each have 12 factors.