Explanation:
To determine whether 360 is prime, composite, or neither, we need to check if it has any factors other than 1 and itself.
We can start by finding the prime factorization of 360:
First, we can divide 360 by 2 to get 180:
360 ÷ 2 = 180
Next, we can divide 180 by 2 to get 90:
180 ÷ 2 = 90
We can continue dividing by 2 until we can no longer divide evenly:
90 ÷ 2 = 45
45 ÷ 3 = 15
15 ÷ 3 = 5
5 is a prime number, so we have found the prime factorization of 360:
360 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 5
Therefore, we can see that 360 is composite because it has more than two factors. We can write it as the product of its prime factors as shown above.
In summary, the number 360 is composite and its prime factorization is:
360 = 2 × 2 × 2 × 3 × 3 × 5