To find the prime factorization of 224, we start by dividing it by the smallest prime number, which is 2.
224 ÷ 2 = 112
Next, we divide 112 by 2 again:
112 ÷ 2 = 56
We continue this process:
56 ÷ 2 = 28
28 ÷ 2 = 14
14 ÷ 2 = 7
Now, we can’t divide evenly by 2 anymore since 7 is a prime number. Therefore, we stop here. All the prime factors we’ve used are:
2, 2, 2, 2, and 7.
In exponential form, the prime factorization of 224 can be written as:
224 = 25 × 7
This means that 224 can be expressed as the product of the prime numbers 2 (used five times) and 7.