Introduction
With 32 kids in a French Club, the club sponsor, Mr. Henry, wants to plan a field trip to France. Wow! What a field trip! All 32 kids are going. Mr. Henry must follow the rules for overseas field trips. One of these rules is that there is a ratio of an adult teacher or chaperone to a certain number of students.
For this school system, each chaperone can’t have over 8 students in their group. So, there must be a ratio of 1:8 regarding the number of adult teachers or chaperones to students. This would include Mr. Henry because he would also have a group.
So, he needs to know how many other teachers or chaperones to ask to participate in his awesome field trip to France. How many adults will he need to ask?
One of the best ways to figure this out is to find the factors of 32. Let’s find out those factors.
Factors of 32 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32
We can find the factors of 32 by reading each rule. Below is a set of steps showing how to find each and every factor of 32. Let’s look at the rules to find these factors. Then, we will be better able to resolve Mr. Henry’s problem of how many chaperones to get for his trip.
Therefore, 32 has factors of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32. With Mr. Henry, he has 8 students in a group. Eight’s factor partner is 4, so that means he will need 4 adults. With Mr. Henry included, that means he will need 3 more chaperones for his trip.
Challenging Questions
Question 1List the factors of 32
Which positive whole numbers divide 32 without leaving a remainder?
The factors of 32 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32.
Each listed number divides the original number evenly.
Question 2Find the factor pairs of 32
Which multiplication pairs have a product of 32?
32 has these positive factor pairs: 1 × 32; 2 × 16; 4 × 8.
Multiplying the two numbers in any pair gives the original number.
Question 3Prime-factorize 32
What is the prime factorization of 32?
32 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2.
Every number in the product is prime.
