Answer:
There were 3 x 3 x 3 emails sent on wednesday. (Or 3³)
Explanation:
Sam sent an email to 3 friends on monday, then on tuesday each of this friends sent an email to 3 friends. We can see that:
- friend 1: sends 3 mails on tuesday
- friend 2: sends 3 mails on tuesday
- friend 3: sends 3 mails on wednesday.
Therefore, on tuesday, 9 mails were sent to 9 different friends.
On wednesday, each of these 9 different friends sent an email to other 3 friends:
If 9 people send an email to other 3 friends, there will be 27 emails sent on wednesday.
The problem asks us to give the prime factorization of these 27 mails, so writing 27 in its prime factorization we get 27 = 3 x 3 x 3 = 3³.