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You can start with the smallest prime factor and then use the divisibility rules:

Divisibility Rules

How do you know if a number is divisible by 2?

If it's an even number

How do you know if a number is divisible by 3?

Sum of the digits is divisible by 3

How do you know if a number is divisible by 4?

Last two digits are divisible by 4

How do you know if a number is divisible by 5?

Last digit is either a 0 or a 5

How do you know if a number is divisible by 6?

Number is even and divisible by 3

How do you know if a number is divisible by 7?

Number divides evenly by 7 (there is no shortcut)

How do you know if a number is divisible by 9?

Sum of the digits is divisible by 9



3841 seems to be prime

If it was 3840:

It's even, so divisible by 2
now you have 1920 which is also divisible by 2
960 divisible by 2
480 divisible by 2
240 divisible by 2
120 divisible by 2
60 divisible by 2
30 divisible by 2
15 is 3 *5

so your prime factors are:

2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*3*5

Hi There ... thanks for the info. I know this approach ... which is easy to use for numbers with prime factor between 1 and 10 ... as you can use the divisibility rules.

However, I was interested in learning the quickest way to get to the prime factors of 3841 ... or identify that this was a prime number.

To identify if 3841 is a prime number we can look at the nearest square number closest to (but lesser than) 3841.
The nearest square, closest to (but lesser than) 3841 is 3721 (61 squared).
We can then look at all the prime numbers under 61 and check if they are factors of 3841. If they are not, then 3841 is a prime number.

I dont know if there is another quicker way ... of do I even need to be concerned with this ... do I need to be looking at doing this quicker ... is this going to be tested in the GMAT ???

Thanks.

The most thorough way to test if a number such as 3841 is prime is to test its divisibility by all prime numbers between 1 and the sqrt(3841).

sqrt(3841) is about 62.

We don't need to test anything above 62 because any number above 62 would have to be multiplied by a number smaller than 62 to get to 3841, and we've already tested all the numbers smaller than 62.

Therefore, we test: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11...
We don't need to test 4, because checking 2 would have caught that. The same goes for 6 and 8. We don't need to test 9 because the 3 would have caught that, so on and so forth.

We keep testing prime numbers until we find a factor or we hit 62.

Therefore, we keep testing: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23
Ah ha! We found one: 23*167 = 3841

Performing the same test on 167, we learn that 167 is also prime. The prime factors of 3841 is therefore 23 and 167.

Unforunately, I do not know a quicker approach to solving this.

If anyone wants to improve through extensive practice, try this link:
http://www.math.com/school/subject1/practice/S1U3L1/S1U3L1Pract.html