Question

What is the prime factor of 32

Answer 1

use the factor tree
32
4 8
2*2 2*4
2*2 2*2*2
so the answer would be 2 to the fifth power

Answer 2

We factor out primes from 32 to find it's prime factorization.

32=2*16=2*2*8=2*2*2*4=2*2*2*2*2. 2 is a prime number, so this cannot be reduced further. Since we have five twos and no other primes, the factorization is 2^5, and the only prime factor is 2.