Prime Factorization

Prime factorization, also called complete factorization, is the decomposition of a whole number into a product of its prime factors. 12 &= 2*2*3 &⇕ 12 &= 2^2* 3 The prime factors are found by dividing out the number by the smallest prime number that is a factor of that number. This process is repeated with the quotient until the resulting quotient is a prime number. The following table shows the prime factorization of 80.

Any whole number greater than 1 has a unique prime factorization.The prime factorization of a prime number is the number itself. Factor trees are also used to find prime factorizations.