In number theory, the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, also called the unique factorization

theorem or the unique-prime-factorization theorem, states that every integer greater than 1[note
1]

either is prime itself or is the product of prime numbers, and that this product is unique, up to

the order of the factors.[3][4][5] For example,

1200 = 24 31 52 = 3 2 2 2 2 5 5 = 5 2 3 2 5 2 2 = etc.
The theorem is stating two things: first, that 1200 can be represented as a product of primes, and
second, no matter how this is done, there will always be four 2s, one 3, two 5s, and no other
primes in the product.
The requirement that the factors be prime is necessary: factorizations containing composite
numbers may not be unique (e.g. 12 = 2 6 = 3 4).
This theorem is one of the main reasons why 1 is not considered a prime number: if 1 were
prime, the factorization would not be unique, as, for example, 2 = 21 = 211 = ...