Unit 3: DIVISIBILITY

3.1.- FACTORS, MULTIPLES AND DIVISORS

Look at these examples:

Example 1: You can distribute equally 48 white roses in 4 bouquets.

12 12 12 12

48 : 4  12  48 is divisible by 4

48 is divisible by 4, because 48 : 4  12 exactly.

“Divisible by” means that if you divide one number by another

the result is a whole number.

Example 2: You can’t distribute equally 50 white roses in 4 bouquets.

50 4
2 12

12 12 12 12 2

50 is not divisible by 4, because 50 : 4  12.5 (the result is not a whole number).

Example 3: Carla has twelve gumballs and wants to share them among friends
where each person receives the same number of gumballs. Carla has several
choices for how she shares her gumballs with.

What are all the possible ways she can share her gumballs (number of people and
number of gumballs each receives)?

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Since each person must receive a whole gumball, the problem is asking for all the
possible natural number products that can be formed where the product is 12.

Complete the table below:

Products Number of people Number of gumballs Meaning

1  12 1 12 She keeps all twelve gumballs

6
34 3
She and three friends each get three gumballs

6
12  1 1

We may consider this problem in three different ways:

 What are all the ways two natural number factors give a product of
twelve?
 What are all the ways we can multiply two natural numbers to get twelve?
 What are the possible natural number divisors of twelve that give a
natural number quotient?

These different perspectives for the problem motivate the concepts of factors,
multiples and divisors.

A factor divides into a number exactly, with no remainder.

The multiples of a number can be divided exactly by the number,

leaving no remainder.

Two or more numbers are factors of a number if their product is

the number. The number is a multiple of each factor. Each factor
is a divisor of the number.

Example:
3 and 4 are factors of 12

12 is a multiple of 3
12  3  4  
12 is a multiple of 4
3 and 4 are divisors of 12

Exercise 1:

Jack says that 100 has ten factors. Do you agree? Explain your answer.

F. Cano Cuenca 2 Mathematics 1º ESO

Exercise 2:

One number between 10 and 20 has five factors.

a) What is the number? b) List its five factors.

Exercise 3:

Fill in the gaps with these words: factor, multiple or divisor. (Sometimes both of
them are possible).

a) 3 and 5 are __________________ of 15.

b) 125 is a ________________ of 25.
c) 36 is a _________________ of 72.
d) 121 is a _________________ of 11.
e) 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12 are ______________________ of 12.

Exercise 4:

a) List all the factors of 36.

b) How can you use the list of factors of 36 to find the factors of 72?
c) How many more factors has 72 than 36? Explain your answer.

Exercise 5:

a) List the first eight multiples of 7.

b) List the first eleven multiples of 4.
c) Which number less than 45 is a multiple of 4 and 7?
d) Write the set of all multiples of 4.
e) Even numbers are multiples of 2. Write the set of all even numbers.
f) If you add 1 to an even number, you get an odd number. If you take away 1
from an even number, you also get an odd number. Write the set of all odd
numbers.

Exercise 6:

a) Are all multiples of 3 also multiples of 9? Explain your answer.

b) Is it true that any multiple of 6 is also a multiple of 3? Explain your answer.

Exercise 7:

6 is a perfect number because its factors, leaving out 6 itself, add to 6:

The factors of 6 are 1, 2, 3, 6.

Leaving out 6 itself, 1 + 2 + 3 = 6

Find the next perfect number after 6.

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3.2.- DIVISIBILITY RULES
You can use simple divisibility tests to find if one number is divisible by another,
without having to do too much calculation.

Here are some simple tests:

A number is
if: Example:
divisible by:
128 is
2 the last digit is even (0, 2, 4, 6, 8)
129 is not
381 is
( 3  8  1  12 and 12 : 3  4 )
3 the sum of the digits is divisible by 3
217 is not
( 2  1  7  10 and 10 : 3  3.333... )

1312 is
4 the last two digits are divisible by 4 ( 12 : 4  3 )
7019 is not
175 is
5 the last digit is 0 or 5
809 is not
114 is
(it is even, and 1  1  4  6 and
6:3  2 )
6 the number is divisible by both 2 and 3
308 is not
(it is even, but 3  0  8  11 and
11 : 3  3.666... )
16024 is
( 16024 : 2  8012 and
8012 is divisible by 4)
8 half of the number is divisible by 4
40084 is not
( 40084 : 2  20042 and
20042 is not divisible by 4)
1629 is
( 1  6  2  9  18 and 18 : 9  2 )
9 the sum of the digits is divisible by 9
2013 is not
(2 0 1 3  6 )
220 is
10 the number ends in 0
221 is not
648 is
( 6  4  8  18 and 18 : 3  6 ,
also 48 : 4  12 )
12 the number is divisible by both 3 and 4
916 is not
( 9  1  6  16 and
16 : 3  5.333... )

Exercise 8:

Check if the following numbers are divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12.

a) 120 b) 50842 c) 828 d) 16515

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3.3.- PRIME NUMBERS AND COMPOSITE NUMBERS
A prime number is a number with only two factors: itself and 1.

Examples: The first four prime numbers are 2, 3, 5 and 7.

1 is not a prime number because it has only one factor.

A composite number has factors in addition to 1 and itself.

Examples: 6  2  3  6 is a composite number.

42  2  3  7  42 is a composite number.

The numbers 0 and 1 are neither prime nor composite.

A prime factor is a factor of a number which is also prime.

Example: 42  2  3  7  2, 3 and 7 are prime factors of 42

Exercise 9:

Are all prime numbers odd numbers? Explain your answer.

Exercise 10:

What is the smallest number which has three prime factors?

Exercise 11:

Put the following numbers in the right place.

14 17 28 29 47 53 57 63 71 79 91 99

Prime numbers

Composite numbers

3.4.- PRIME FACTOR DECOMPOSITION

Any number greater than 1 can be written as a product of its prime factors. This
is called the prime factor decomposition of the number.

Example: 56  2  2  2  7  23  7

There is only one prime factor decomposition for any number.

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Here are two common methods to find the prime factor decomposition of a
number.

Factor trees Division by prime numbers

Split the number into a factor pair. Divide the number by the smallest
Continue splitting until you reach a prime number. Repeat dividing by
prime factor. larger prime numbers until you
reach a prime number.
84
84 2
2 42 42 2
21 3
2 21 7 7
1
3 7

84  2  2  3  7  22  3  7 84  2  2  3  7  22  3  7

Exercise 12:

Write the prime factor decomposition for each of these numbers.

a) 45 b) 60 c) 99 d) 100
e) 128 f) 219 g) 289 h) 462
i) 525 j) 1001 k) 1729 l) 9724

Exercise 13:

A cuboid is made from 210 small cubes.

The prime factor decomposition of 210 is 2  3  5  7 .
One way of combining the prime factors is 2  3  5  7  6  5  7 .
The dimensions of the cuboid could be 6  5  7 .

a) Find all the ways in which the prime factors of 210 can be combined to
make 3 factors.

b) Using your answer to part a), list the dimensions of all the cuboids that
could be made with 210 cubes.

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3.5.- HIGHEST COMMON FACTOR (HCF)
AND LEAST COMMON MULTIPLE (LCM)

The highest common factor (HCF) of two or more numbers is the largest
number that is factor of all of them.

Example: The HCF of 12 and 18 is 6.

The least common multiple (LCM) of two or more numbers is the smallest
number that is multiple of all of them.

Example: The LCM of 12 and 18 is 36.

Here are three common methods for finding LCM and HCF.

Method I:

To find the HCF of two or more numbers:

 List all the factors of each number.

 Identify the largest factor that is in all of these lists.

Example:

Factors of 18   1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18 
Factors of 24   1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24 
HCF of 18 and 24  6

To find the LCM of two or more numbers:

 List the first few multiples of each number.

 Identify the smallest multiple that is in all of those lists.

Example:

Multiples of 18   18, 36, 54, 72, 90, ... 

Multiples of 24   24, 48, 72, 96, ... 
LCM of 18 and 24  72

Method II:

You can find the HCF and LCM by writing the prime factor decomposition for
each number in a Venn diagram.

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Example: Find the HCF and LCM of 36 and 28.

Find the prime factor decomposition of each number: 36  22  32 and 28  22  7 .

Write these prime factors in a Venn Diagram.

prime factors of 36 prime factors of 28

The common factors are in the middle (the ‘intersection’).

The HCF of 36 and 28 is the product of the numbers in the intersection:

22  4

The LCM is the product of all the numbers in the diagram:

22  32  7  252

Method III:

To find the HCF of two or more numbers:

 Find the prime factor decomposition of each number.

 Multiply the common factors with the lowest exponents.

Example: 28  22  7 126  2  32  7

HCF of 28 and 126  2  7  14

To find the LCM of two or more numbers:

 Find the prime factor decomposition of each number.

 Multiply the common factors and the non common factors with the
highest exponents.

Example: 28  22  7 126  2  32  7

LCM of 28 and 126  22  7  32  252

Exercise 14:

Use the method I to work out the HCF and LCM of these pairs of numbers.

a) 12 and 30 b) 14 and 35 c) 8 and 20

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Exercise 15:

Use the method II to work out the HCF and LCM of these pairs of numbers.

a) 25 and 120 b) 60 and 144 c) 20 and 110

Exercise 16:

Use the method III to work out the HCF and LCM of these numbers.

a) 132 and 540 b) 252 and 735 c) 18, 24 and 30

3.6.- HCF AND LCM WORD PROBLEMS

Look at these examples:

Example 1:

The soccer team and the football team are sharing

the field for their practices today. The soccer team
meets for practice every 6 days, and the football
team meets every 8 days. How many days from now
will they have to share the field again?

You have to calculate the smallest number that is multiple of 6 and 8, that
is, the LCM of 6 and 8.

6  2  3
  LCM (6, 8)  2  3  24
3

8  23 

Solution: They will have 24 days to share the field again.

Example 2:
Lynn is serving vegetables at a soup kitchen. She has 20 carrot sticks and 12
baby potatoes that she wants to divide evenly, with no food left over. What is
the greatest number of plates Lynn can prepare? How many carrot sticks and
how many baby potatoes will each plate have?

You have to calculate the largest number that is factor of 20 and 12, that
is, the HCF of 20 and 12.

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 20  22  5 
  HCF (20, 12)  2  4
2

12  2  3 
2

Solution: the greatest number of plates than Lynn can prepare is 4 and
there are 5 carrot sticks and 3 baby potatoes in each plate.

Exercise 17:

An English teacher would like to divide 12 boys and 15 girls into groups, each
with the same combination of boys and girls and nobody left out. What is the
greatest number of groups that can be formed? How many boys and girls will
each group have?

Exercise 18:

Boxes that are 18 inches tall are stacked next to boxes that
are 12 inches tall. What is the shortest height at which the
two stacks will be the same height?

Exercise 19:

Two neon lights are turned on at the same time. One blinks every 4 seconds and
the other one blinks every 6 seconds. In 60 seconds, how many times will they
blink at the same time?

Exercise 20:

Bridget is making identical balloon arrangements for a

party. She has 32 green balloons, 24 yellow balloons and 16
blue balloons. She wants each arrangement to have the
same number of each colour. What is the greatest number
of arrangements that she can make if every balloon is used?
How many green balloons, yellow balloons and blue balloons
will each arrangement have?

Exercise 21:

Enrique owns a business and assigns two of his employees their shifts. He
assigns the first employee shifts in blocks of 12 hours, and he assigns the
second worker shifts in blocks of 8 hours. If both workers must receive the
same number of hours, what is the minimum number of hours each must be
assigned?

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Exercise 22:

Bridget has swimming lessons every 5 days and diving lessons every three days.
If she had a swimming lesson and a diving lesson on May 5, when will be the next
date on which she has both swimming and diving lessons?

Exercise 23:

Veronica is making emergency-preparedness kits to share with friends. She has

20 bottles of water and 12 cans of food, which she would like to distribute
equally among the kits, with nothing left over. What is the greatest number of
kits Veronica can make? How many bottles and how many cans will each kit have?

Exercise 24:

Pencils come in packs of 10. Erasers come in packs of 12.

Phillip wants to buy the smallest number of pencils and
erasers so that he will have exactly 1 eraser per pencil.
How many packs of pencils and how many packs of erasers
should Phillip buy?

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