How do you find the prime factorization of 48?

Finding the prime factors of a number involves repeated division of the number by prime numbers and only moving on when that prime will not evenly divide into the number, until we end up with a quotient of 1.

48 ÷ 2 = 24 (we always start with 2, the lowest prime)

24 ÷ 2 = 12

12 ÷ 2 = 6

6 ÷ 2 = 3 (2 will not evenly divide into 3, so we move on to the next prime)

3 ÷ 3 = 1

So we divided by 2 four times and by 3 once.... so the prime factors fo 48 are 2, 2, 2, 2 and 3.