Introduction
You grab your pack of 8 water bottles out of the fridge. You want to hand out an equal amount of water to your family members outside who are raking leaves. Not that it matters, but if everyone has an equal number of water bottles, then there won’t be any arguing among the children.
Think about what other information you need to know to determine how many water bottles to hand out to each member of your family.
You will need to know the number of family members, including yourself, are working outside raking the leaves. Once you have that number, then you can use the factors of 8 to find out how many water bottles each person will get. In order for everyone to get an equal number of water bottles, the number of people would have to be a factor of 8.
The Factors of 8
Let’s look at the factors of 8. We can use the steps to find all of the factors of 8.
Let’s try 3.
Three does not divide equally into 8. There is a remainder of 2.
Let’s try 5 next. As you can see below, 5 cannot divide equally into 8 either. There is a remainder of 3.
Let’s try 6 next.
Eight is not evenly divisible by 6 either. Two is left over. So, the last number to try is 7. Seven isn’t a factor either. There would be a remainder of one. You may be able to easily see that these numbers cannot divide equally into 8 because the numbers are too high.
For instance, 5, 6, and 7 are so close to 8 that you can immediately see there will be a remainder.
Factors for 8 are 1, 2, 4, 8
Challenging Questions
Question 1List the factors of 8
Which positive whole numbers divide 8 without leaving a remainder?
The factors of 8 are 1, 2, 4, 8.
Each listed number divides the original number evenly.
Question 2Find the factor pairs of 8
Which multiplication pairs have a product of 8?
8 has these positive factor pairs: 1 × 8; 2 × 4.
Multiplying the two numbers in any pair gives the original number.
Question 3Prime-factorize 8
What is the prime factorization of 8?
8 = 2 × 2 × 2.
Every number in the product is prime.
