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.
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