How many factors does 36^2 (square of 36) have?
A) 2
B) 8
C) 24
D) 25
E) 26
I got it wrong but have the answer. Can someone help with answer and good explanation?
Factor question
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gmatwarroom wrote:How many factors does 36^2 (square of 36) have?
A) 2
B) 8
C) 24
D) 25
E) 26
I got it wrong but have the answer. Can someone help with answer and good explanation?
36² = 2^4 * 3^4
So, no. of factors = power of each prime factor + 1
= (4 + 1)(4 + 1)
= 25
The correct answer is D.
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Note: In most (in not all cases on the GMAT), factors are limited to positive values. I believe that this question would read: How many positive factors does 36^2 have?gmatwarroom wrote:How many factors does 36^2 (square of 36) have?
A) 2
B) 8
C) 24
D) 25
E) 26
In general, we can say that if N = (p^a)(q^b)(r^c)..., where p, q, r etc are prime numbers, then the total number of positive divisors of N is equal to (a+1)(b+1)(c+1)...
Example: 14000 = (2^4)(5^3)(7^1)
So, the number of positive divisors of 14000 = (4+1)(3+1)(1+1) = 5x4x2=40
Now we'll solve the original question.
36^2 = [(2^2)(3^2)]^2 = (2^4)(3^4)
So, the number of positive divisors of (2^4)(3^4) = (4+1)(4+1)= 5x5=25=D
Cheers,
Brent
Last edited by Brent@GMATPrepNow on Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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To determine the number of positive factors of an integer:How many factors does 36^2 have?
a.2
b.8
c.24
d.25
e.26
OA:D[spoiler][/spoiler]
1) Prime-factorize the integer
2) Add 1 to each exponent
3) Multiply
36² = 2^4 * 3^4.
Adding 1 to each exponent and multiplying, we get:
(4+1)*(4+1) = 25 factors.
The correct answer is D.
Here's the reasoning:
To determine how many factors can be created from 36² = 2^4 * 3^4, we need to determine the number of choices we have of each prime factor:
For 2, we can use 2^0, 2^1, 2², 2³, or 2^4, giving us 5 choices.
For 3, we can use 3^0, 3^1, 3², 3³, or 3^4, giving us 5 choices.
To combine the number of choices we have of each prime factor, we multiply:
5*5 = 25 factors.
Similar problems:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/divisors-t85731.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/all-factors- ... 15019.html
A problem about counting only the ODD factors:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-loves-f ... 72876.html
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thanks Anurag, Brent and GMATGuruNY.
GMATGuruNY - thanks for getting to reasoning, as that's what exactly I was looking for. But, somehow, I am still not able to get step #2 Add 1 to each exponent. When I did this, I considered only 4 choices from 2 and 4 from 3 and so 4*4 = 16 and so couldnt find any matching answer and so just went with 8 (guess )
Is it because 1 is ALWAYS a factor or every number? But 1 is not a prime factor --
may be I am missing something basic...
GMATGuruNY - thanks for getting to reasoning, as that's what exactly I was looking for. But, somehow, I am still not able to get step #2 Add 1 to each exponent. When I did this, I considered only 4 choices from 2 and 4 from 3 and so 4*4 = 16 and so couldnt find any matching answer and so just went with 8 (guess )
Is it because 1 is ALWAYS a factor or every number? But 1 is not a prime factor --
may be I am missing something basic...
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72 = 2³ * 3².gmatwarroom wrote:thanks Anurag, Brent and GMATGuruNY.
GMATGuruNY - thanks for getting to reasoning, as that's what exactly I was looking for. But, somehow, I am still not able to get step #2 Add 1 to each exponent. When I did this, I considered only 4 choices from 2 and 4 from 3 and so 4*4 = 16 and so couldnt find any matching answer and so just went with 8 (guess )
Is it because 1 is ALWAYS a factor or every number? But 1 is not a prime factor --
may be I am missing something basic...
The prime-factorization here implies the following:
To create a factor of 72, we can choose from TWO BUCKETS.
The first bucket (2³) contains three 2's.
The second bucket (3²) contains two 3's.
From the 2³ bucket we can choose no 2's, one 2, two 2's, or three 2's, for A TOTAL OF 4 OPTIONS -- ONE MORE than 2's exponent.
From the 3² bucket, we can choose no 3's, one 3, or two 3's, for A TOTAL OF 3 OPTIONS -- ONE MORE than 3's exponent.
In each case, the number of options from each bucket is ONE MORE than the value of the exponent.
It is for this reason that we ADD ONE to each exponent in the prime-factorization and multiply:
Total number of factors of 72 = (3+1)(2+1) = 12.
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Sorry GMATGuruNY ... still not clear for me
"From the 2³ bucket we can choose no 2's, one 2, two 2's, or three 2's, for A TOTAL OF 4 OPTIONS -- ONE MORE than 2's exponent. "
From above, I infer, following as options
Option-1 : 2 (i.e. min one 2)
Option-2 : 2*2 (i.e. two 2)
Option-3 : 2*2*2 (i.e. max three 2)
what is 4th option?
"From the 2³ bucket we can choose no 2's, one 2, two 2's, or three 2's, for A TOTAL OF 4 OPTIONS -- ONE MORE than 2's exponent. "
From above, I infer, following as options
Option-1 : 2 (i.e. min one 2)
Option-2 : 2*2 (i.e. two 2)
Option-3 : 2*2*2 (i.e. max three 2)
what is 4th option?
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See the portion above that I highlighted in red:gmatwarroom wrote:Sorry GMATGuruNY ... still not clear for me
"From the 2³ bucket there are FOUR OPTIONS:
no 2's at all -- a factor of 72 does not have to include any 2's
one 2
two 2's,
three 2's
A TOTAL OF 4 OPTIONS -- ONE MORE than 2's exponent. "
From above, I infer, following as options
Option-1 : 2 (i.e. min one 2)
Option-2 : 2*2 (i.e. two 2)
Option-3 : 2*2*2 (i.e. max three 2)
what is 4th option?
Option 4: NO 2'S AT ALL
So if the prime-factorization of an integer include 2�, there are 6 options:
Option 1: 2� (meaning NO 2's AT ALL)
Option 2: 2¹
Option 3: 2²
Option 4: 2³
Option 5: 2�
Option 6: 2�
Total options = 5+1 = 6.
One more than 2's exponent.
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For most numbers, positive factors come in pairs. For example, for 12, we have three pairs of factors which gives us 12 as a product:gmatwarroom wrote:How many factors does 36^2 (square of 36) have?
A) 2
B) 8
C) 24
D) 25
E) 26
I got it wrong but have the answer. Can someone help with answer and good explanation?
1*12 = 12
2*6 = 12
3*4 = 12
Since for most numbers, factors come in pairs, most numbers have an even number of factors. The only exception are perfect squares; for a perfect square, one factor is not in a pair (or you might say it's paired with itself). So a perfect square like 16 has five factors:
1*16 = 16
2*8 = 16
4^2 = 16
So perfect squares are the only numbers which have an odd number of positive factors.
So in the question above, since 36^2 is clearly a square, it has an odd number of factors and the answer must be D.
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Hello Brent,Brent@GMATPrepNow wrote: Note: In most (in not all cases on the GMAT), factors are limited to positive values. I believe that this question would read: How many positive factors does 36^2 have?
In general, we can say that if N = (p^a)(q^b)(r^c)..., where p, q, r etc are prime numbers, then the total number of positive divisors of N is equal to (a+1)(b+1)(c+1)...
Why we need to add 1 to the exponents to get positive values ?
And what if it's not specified to calculate "positive factors" ?
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Adding 1 is a result of some counting techniques. I won't get into that.TheAnuja55 wrote: Hello Brent,
Why we need to add 1 to the exponents to get positive values ?
And what if it's not specified to calculate "positive factors" ?
It's extremely unlikely that a GMAT question would allow for negative factors. However, if negative factors are allowed, then we'd need to take the number of positive factors and double it, since there would be one negative factor that corresponds to each positive factor.
Cheers,
Brent