IGCSE Maths / Powers and roots

Prime factor decomposition revision notes

Edexcel International GCSE Maths (4MA1), chapter 3: Powers and roots, specification point 1.4d. Part of the full course.

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Prime factor decomposition means writing a whole number as a product of prime numbers, using powers for repeated factors. It is useful for finding highest common factors and lowest common multiples, and for cancelling fractions.

More lessons in Powers and roots

• Squares, cubes and their roots
• Evaluating fractional powers
• Index laws with negative and zero powers
• Evaluating negative powers
• Index laws with whole-number powers
• Standard form arithmetic
• Solving problems in standard form
• Factors, multiples and primes
• HCF and LCM