To represent the number 60 as a product of its prime factors, we can create factor trees. Here are two different factor trees for the number 60:
Factor Tree 1:
- Start with 60.
- 60 can be divided by 2 (which is a prime number) to get 30.
- From 30, we can again divide by 2 to get 15.
- 15 can be divided by 3 (another prime number) to get 5.
- Now, 5 is a prime number itself.
Thus, the first factorization looks like this: 60 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 5, or in exponential form, 60 = 22 x 3 x 5.
Factor Tree 2:
- Again, start with 60.
- This time, we can divide 60 by 3 (which is prime) to get 20.
- From 20, divide by 2 to get 10.
- 10 can then be divided by 2 to get 5.
- 5, as mentioned before, is prime.
So, the second factorization looks like this: 60 = 3 x 2 x 2 x 5, or in exponential form, 60 = 3 x 22 x 5.
In summary, both trees confirm that the prime factorization of 60 is made up of the same prime numbers, just arranged differently: 60 = 22 x 3 x 5 and 60 = 3 x 22 x 5.