Divisors of a number are simply the numbers that can divide it evenly, meaning there is no remainder left over. For example, if you have a number like 34, its divisors are those numbers that can fit into it without leaving a fraction. Understanding divisors helps in many areas of math, including factoring and finding greatest common divisors. In this article, we will focus on the divisors of the number 34, and I will guide you step-by-step through the process.
To begin, let’s talk about division. Division is a way to split a number into equal parts. In division, we have three important terms:
- Dividend: This is the number you want to divide. In our example, it’s 34.
- Divisor: This is the number you are dividing by. It can be any whole number.
- Quotient: This is the result you get after you divide the dividend by the divisor.
Let’s look at an example using the number 34. If we divide 34 by 2, we write it like this:
34 / 2 = 17
Here, 34 is the dividend, 2 is the divisor, and 17 is the quotient. This means that when you split 34 into 2 equal parts, you get 17 in each part.
Now, let’s calculate the divisors of the number 34. We will do this by dividing 34 by every integer starting from 1 up to 34 itself. We’ll check which integers give us a whole number (no fractions left over) when we perform the division.
Here’s how we can find the divisors of 34:
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Start with 1:
- 34 / 1 = 34 (whole number)
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Next 2:
- 34 / 2 = 17 (whole number)
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Then 3:
- 34 / 3 = 11.33 (not a whole number)
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Next 4:
- 34 / 4 = 8.5 (not a whole number)
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Next 5:
- 34 / 5 = 6.8 (not a whole number)
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Next 6:
- 34 / 6 = 5.67 (not a whole number)
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Next 7:
- 34 / 7 = 4.857 (not a whole number)
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Next 8:
- 34 / 8 = 4.25 (not a whole number)
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Next 9:
- 34 / 9 = 3.78 (not a whole number)
- Next 10:
- 34 / 10 = 3.4 (not a whole number)
Here are the results of our calculations where the divisor produced a whole number:
- 34 / 1 = 34 (divisor: 1)
- 34 / 2 = 17 (divisor: 2)
With further checks, we find that no other integers below 34 work as divisors. Now let’s check the next integer, which is 17:
- 34 / 17 = 2 (whole number)
And finally, the last integer, 34 itself:
- 34 / 34 = 1 (whole number)
Now to summarize, the divisors of 34 are the numbers that divide 34 without leaving a fraction:
- 1
- 2
- 17
- 34
In conclusion, the complete list of divisors for the number 34 is:
- 1
- 2
- 17
- 34
We explored what divisors are, how to identify them through division, and we calculated each one for the number 34. Understanding divisors is a fundamental concept in math that will serve you well as you continue to learn!