Factors of 5: Method, Total Number of  Factors

What do we mean by Factors of 5?

The factors of a number x  are the numbers that completely divide x with zero as a remainder. It means that if y divides x and the remainder is 0 then we say that y is a factor of x.

Factors of 5 i.e, the numbers which completely divide 5 are 1and 5. Therefore 5 has a total of 2 factors.

Why does 5 have only two factors?

As we all know 5 is a prime number. A prime number is a number that is only divisible by itself and 1. Therefore the total number of factors of any prime number will be two i.e, the number itself and 1.

Factors of 5

The easiest way to calculate the factors of any number is by first dividing the number by its smallest factor. So the number which will divide the number completely and the quotient we get will be the factor( This is also known as Pair of the factors). We will repeat this process till we find all the factors of 5.

We know that 1 is the only number which is the factor of every number, so: 

\frac{5}{1}=5, therefore 1 and 5 will be the only factor of 5 as 5 is a prime number.

Therefore the factors of 5 will be 1 and 5.

Prime Factorisation 

Prime Factorisation of a number means the way of writing the numbers by using its prime factors. Since 5 is itself a prime number, therefore the only prime factor of 5 will be 5. 

Factors of 5 in the form of Pairs

We can write the factors of a number in the form of pairs. The pair means that when we will multiply the two numbers we’ll get the result as 5 –

1 × 5 = 5

Therefore the Pair is (1,5).

Factors of a number can be negative too but only when they are in pairs and negative as when we multiply the two numbers we get the result as 5.

−1 × −5 = 5

Therefore the negative factor pair of 5 is (−1,−5).

Examples 

1.    Which of the following is a factor of 5?

       – 2, 3, 5  

Solution: 5 being a prime number has only two factors, the number 1 and 5 itself, therefore from the given numbers only 5 is the factor of 5. 

2 and 3 are not factors of 5 as when we divide 5 from 2 and 3 we do not get natural numbers

5/3  = 1.66

5/2 = 2.5

2. Is 25 a factor of 5? 

Solution: No, 25 is not a factor of 5.

The highest factor of a number will be the number itself.

25 is a multiple of 5 as 5 x 5 = 25.

POINTS TO REMEMBER

• 1 is a factor of every number therefore it is known as a universal factor and the smallest factor of a number. 
• The highest factor of a number will be the number itself.
• If a number has only two factors then it is called a prime number. Therefore 5 is a prime number.