Lesson 1.

5 Products of prime numbers

Specification references

Statement Core
1.1 Identify prime factors.
1.4 Express integers as the product of powers of prime factors.

Collins references

Student Book page 14 15

Learning objectives

Identify prime factors.

Key words

prime factor, product

Prior knowledge
Students should understand what a factor is. Students should know what a prime number is.

Common mistakes and remediation

A common mistake, when students are using the division method, is to leave out the last factor when
rewriting the answer in index notation.
Encourage students to check their answer by multiplying the factors together and checking the answer is
the original number..

Useful tips
It may be helpful to display the important facts.
A factor is a number that divides into another number without a remainder.
A prime number has only two factors: itself and 1.

Starter

Students work in pairs, with two whiteboards. They write Prime on one whiteboard.

Say a number. Students write the number on the plain whiteboard and list all its factors beneath it. If
the number is prime, they hold up both whiteboards. Otherwise, they hold up the whiteboard with the
number and its factors. For example, if the number is 5, they write this on the whiteboard, with 1, 5
below it, and hold it up alongside the Prime board. If the number is 6, they write this on the
whiteboard with 1, 2, 3, 6 below it.

Repeat for a variety of numbers.

Edexcel IGCSE Maths Teachers Pack HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2011 14

 Lesson 1.5 Products of prime numbers

Main lesson activity

When they have realised the importance of recognising prime numbers in this way, explain that prime
factors are factors that are also prime numbers. Say a number. Students write it and its prime factors
onto the plain board.

Go through finding the prime factors of 24 by repeated division. Explain to students that as the
number is even, we can start with 2.

Carry on with the repeated division and then write 24 as a product of prime factors:
24 = 2 2 2 3

Explain that this can also be written in index notation: 24 = 23 3

Repeat for other numbers such as 96 and 76 (25 5, and 22 19)

Work through Example 2.

Students can now do Exercise 1F.

Plenary

Ask students to summarise how they would write a number as a product of its prime factors.

Homework and answers

Homework for this lesson is available in the homework folder. Consolidation and extension exercises are
available in the further practice folder. Answers to the exercises can be found in the answers folder.

Edexcel IGCSE Maths Teachers Pack HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2011 15