You can put this solution on YOUR website! Even numbers have 2 as a factor. Since 400 is an even number, you can begin by dividing it by 2 since 2 is a factor. This results in:
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2*200 = 400
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But 200 is also an even number, so it has 2 as a factor. Divide 200 by the factor 2 and you then have:
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2*(2*100) = 400
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I'm using parentheses so you can tell where the factors of 200 came in.
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100 is also even, so it has 2 as a factor. Divide it by 2 and the factors of 400 now become:
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2*(2*(2*50)) = 400
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The factors of 100 are 2 and 50 and are shown within a new set of parentheses.
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And just as before 50 is an even number. Divide it by 2 and the factors of 400 are now:
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2*(2*(2*(2*25))) = 400
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Note that another set of parentheses containing the factors of 50 which are 2 and 25 has been added.
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Finally, 25 can be factored into 5 times 5. When this is done, the factors of 400 are:
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2*(2*(2*(2*(5*5)))) = 400
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We can now remove all the parentheses. They were just used to show you where new factors were appearing. Since the entire left side is just products of numbers, the parentheses can be removed without doing anything special. The left side of this equation then becomes as shown:
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2*2*2*2*5*5 = 400
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All of these factors are now prime numbers, meaning they are divisible only by themselves and 1. So we have reached the end of the line. However we can write this in the following abbreviated form:
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and that is all that can be done in factoring 400.
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Hope this helps you understand factoring of even numbers a little bit more.
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