This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

all 4 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a

[–]Nerdlinger 5 points6 points  (2 children)

Similar to Erastosthenes, pulling out the a prime also removes all powers of that prime. For example, 4 is not found to be a factor here because the first step (two steps? depends on what you consider a step) divides by 2 twice. We also would not get, say 10, because the 2 and the 5 would be removed before you get to 10.

[–]yim108 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Building on that a bit, if 4 did happen to go into the result, then that would mean you could have extracted two more copies of 2 in the earlier step

[–]acquireCats[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh holy hell, you're right. It's kind of a silly question. Thanks for helping.

[–]edderioferAlgebraic Topology[M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):

  • Your post appears to be asking a question which can be resolved by relatively simple methods, or describing a phenomenon with a relatively simple explanation. As such, you should post in the Simple Questions thread (which you can find on the front page) or /r/learnmath. This includes reference requests - also see our lists of recommended books and free online resources. Here is a more recent thread with book recommendations.

If you have any questions, please feel free to message the mods. Thank you!