Prime Factorization of 28
Find the prime factorization of 28. Express 28 as a product of prime numbers.
To find the prime factorization of 28, we need to express it as a product of prime numbers.
We do this by repeatedly dividing by the smallest prime that divides evenly, starting with 2.
A prime number is only divisible by 1 and itself (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, ...).
Since 28 is even, we start by dividing by 2. We can divide by 2 twice:
After dividing by 2, we have 7 remaining.
We are left with 7, which is greater than 1.
7 cannot be divided by any prime smaller than its square root.
Therefore, 7 is itself a prime number and is our final factor.
Now we combine all the prime factors we found:
Expanded form: 28 = 2 × 2 × 7
Exponential form: 28 = 2^2 × 7
We can verify: 2 × 2 × 7 = 28 ✓