To determine the prime factors of 12, we first need to understand what prime factors are. Prime factors are the prime numbers that multiply together to give the original number.
We start by dividing 12 by the smallest prime number, which is 2:
- 12 ÷ 2 = 6
Next, we take the result (6) and divide it by 2 again:
- 6 ÷ 2 = 3
Now, we have reached 3. The number 3 is a prime number, so we stop here. Therefore, we can express 12 as:
- 12 = 2 × 2 × 3
In prime factorization terms, the prime factors of 12 are 2 and 3. To summarize, the prime factorization of 12 is:
- 22 × 3
So, the prime factors of 12 are 2 and 3.