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I am trying to illustrate some simple ideas with exponents. I can manually express something like $5^4$ as $5 \cdot 5 \cdot 5 \cdot 5$, but wondered how to get Mathematica to do that for me.

I found the example below in the documentation, but can't figure out how to "massage" it to work with a number that only has one factor, for example I would like $625$ to be represented as $5 \cdot 5 \cdot 5 \cdot 5$:

CenterDot @@ (Superscript @@@ FactorInteger[20!])

Any ideas would be appreciated.

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    $\begingroup$ For several years now there has also been the InactiveFactorInteger ResourceFunction, though it does not expand non-distinct factors like you want, e.g. ResourceFunction["InactiveFactorInteger"][12] returns $2^2\times3$ . $\endgroup$
    – user170231
    Jun 8, 2023 at 17:18

2 Answers 2

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Here's a way that seems to work:

CenterDot @@ Flatten[ConstantArray @@@ FactorInteger[20!]]

enter image description here

CenterDot @@ Flatten[ConstantArray @@@ FactorInteger[625]]

enter image description here

To get the number back, merely do

Times @@ expr

where expr is the name for the expression that results from the code above.

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You can also make use of Inactive to allow you to calculate the value later.

Starting with march's solution and altering the Apply.

n = 20!;
t = Inactive[Times] @@ Flatten[ConstantArray @@@ FactorInteger[n]]
(* 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*3*3*3*3*3*3*3*3*5*5*5*5*7*7*11*13*17*19 *)

t can be Activated to calculate the value.

Activate@t == n
(* True *)

Hope this helps

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