Question

Manuel created a factor tree and wrote the prime factorization of 60 shown below.

What is Manuel’s error?
He did not include 15 in the prime factorization.
He did not find the prime factors of 4.
He should have started the factor tree with 2 times 30.
He should not have found the factors of 15.

Answer 1

He did not find the prime factors of 4.

Explanation:

4 is not a prime factor; it can be further factored into 2 x 2, or
`2^(2)`. So the actual prime factorization of 60 is
`2^(2)` x 3 x 5.

Hope that helped! :)