Difference between revisions of "5: Blown apart"
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m (Waldir moved page Blown apart to 5: Blown apart: Mass-moving pages to 'number: title' format, per discussion at explain xkcd:Community portal/Coordination#Page names) |
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Revision as of 18:13, 7 August 2012
5: Blown apart |
Title text: Blown into prime factors |
Description
The image text to this one explains the comic. An anthropomorphic number 70 approaches a package tied with a bow. The package appears to be a package bomb - a package that is rigged to explode upon opening. Instead of being wounded in the way a person would be, the 70 is blown into its prime factors (2, 5 and 7). Prime numbers are numbers which can not be divided by any number other than itself and 1. Factors of a number are numbers which can be multiplied together to produce that number (2x5x7 = 70). 70 has other factors, including 1, 10, 14, 35 and 70; but 2, 5 and 7 are the only factors which are prime. All other factors of 70 (other than 1) can be formed by multiplying two of the prime factors together. In other words, 2, 5 and 7 are the smallest pieces 70 can be divided (or blown) into.