The prime factorization of 40 is 2 × 2 × 2 × 5, or written in exponential form, it is 23 × 5.
To arrive at this, we need to break down 40 into its prime factors. We start by dividing 40 by the smallest prime number, which is 2:
- 40 ÷ 2 = 20
- 20 ÷ 2 = 10
- 10 ÷ 2 = 5
Now we have divided by 2 three times to get to 5, which is a prime number itself. Therefore, we can represent 40 as:
40 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 5
This shows all the prime numbers multiplied together to give the original number, confirming that the prime factorization of 40 is indeed 23 × 5.