Difference Between Factors and Multiples

Factors vs multiples

Grade school mathematics was the gateway that opened up for the world of brilliant complications brought about by the subject Math. The world is indeed a matrix of numbers and computations; everything around you can be measured and everything that perplexes your confound mind can be explained through numbers. Even the existence of the hand of the divine power can be computed in numbers through what experts call as PHI 1.618 or the Divine Proportion. Did you know that when you divide everything into half of the entire length, you’d always get the same number: PHI? Take for example if you measure your entire body length from head to toe and you divide the result from the measure of your navel to toe, you’d get PHI, the Divine Proportion. Same goes for the spiral growth of sunflower seeds. If you measure the ratio of its rotation’s diameter to the next, you will find out that it’s PHI. Math really is astounding. It’s religious, scientific, romantic, and everything else. And no matter how many people hated it, it cannot be abolished because Math is like air. People need to breathe it in. It’s part of human nature.

Grade school mathematics taught everyone about the infinite integers, about simple addition, multiplication, subtraction and division, and about other different terms and principles that really shook your boat or made you feel at ease. Factors and multiples are just among the other different terms you encountered in grade school. No, these are not names of the bullies who would put you inside a trash can; these are prerequisite lessons in mathematics which leads towards the lesson of factoring. Factoring, you see is very important in math. As long as you haven’t grasped the concept of factoring, you cannot move on to the next level of algebra either. Factors are made up of the multiplier and the multiplicand. Multiples, on the other hand, are the products of factors. It is the number derived when you multiple or divide integers. To better understand or be refreshed with the lessons about multiples and factors from the past, here are the distinctions and some examples for multiples and factors.

Factors consist of the multiplier and the multiplicand or the divisor and the dividend. Examples of factors are the factors of the product 15. 15 is a product of 1X15, 3X5. The factors of 15 are 1, 3, 5, and 15 itself. 1 and 15 or 3 and 5 are the factor pairs of the number 15. Its prime factors are 3 and 5. In the first paragraph, the sample about Divine Proportion, the factors of the PHI 1.618 concerning the total body length of the person is a (total body length)/ b (half body length)= PHI 1.618. To simply put, factors are the integers used to derive the product of a given formula.

Multiples on the other hand are the product, the result, the number from which the factors were either multiplied or divided. An example of multiples is the number 15. 1X15= 15 and 3X5=15. 15 is the product of the factors. In line with the computation of the Divine Proportion, the result from which you divide: a (total body length)/ b (half body length) = the multiple of PHI 1.618.

SUMMARY:

1.

Both factors and multiples are lessons from grade school math.
2.

2. Both also are prerequisite lessons of factoring, which is also a prerequisite for advance algebra.
3.

Factors are the integer’s multiplicand and multiplier and divisor and dividend; while Multiples are the product of factors.

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