Three students need to produce a prime factorization of 48. Donna states that the first factors in the tree should be 6 and 8. Larry states that the first factors in the tree should be 4 and 12. Trish states that the initial factors of 48 do not affect the prime factorization. Explain why Trish is correct. Why is trish correct?
A prime factorization is the product of the prime numbers that multiply to give the original number. 48 will have a prime factorization of 2(2)(2)(2)(3), or 24(3), regardless of the initial factors.
