Question

What does it mean to increase by a factor?

Answer 1

To increase by a factor means that the members of the sequence are multiplied by the same number. For instance, if a given set of numbers are increased by a factor of 5, that means all the numbers are multiplied by 5.

Answer 2

To increase by a factor is to multiply a magnitude by the given factor.

For example, increasing a line by a factor of 10, is to multiply the length of the line times 10.

When you want to increase the size of a picture by a factor you have to multiply both dimensions length and width by the same factor.

For example to increase the size of a picture that is 3" x 4" by a factor of 5, you will get a copy that is 15" x 20".