 For example, 
since the divisors of 6 are 1, 2, 3, 6, and the divisors of 12 that do not divide 6 are 4 and 12.For polynomials, factorization is strongly related with the problem of solving algebraic equations.An algebraic equation has the form
where 
where is a polynomial in , such that formula_69
A solution of this equation (also called root of the polynomial) is a value of such that

If 
is a factorization of as a product of two polynomials, then the roots of are the union of the roots of and the roots of .