Tips for Beginners: Prime power decomposition

Abstract

The fact that a number can always be expressed as a product of prime numbers can he used to develop new understanding about equivalent fractions and about the square root of a number. Prime power decomposition is merely the language of number theory for saying that any number can be expressed as a product of prime numbers or powers of primes, e.g., 10 = 2-5 and 27 = 3·3·3 = 33. This idea can be used in eighth and ninth grade general mathematics.