Why do you stop breaking down a factor once it is prime?

Conditions

• The current branch value is prime.
• The goal is to express the original number as a product of primes only.

Reasoning, step by step

1. Check if the current factor is prime.
2. If it is prime, stop expanding that branch.
3. If it is composite, find two smaller factors and continue the tree.

Example

In the factor tree for 63, the branch 7 is stopped and circled because 7 is prime, while the branch 9 is continued because 9 is composite and can be broken into 3 and 3.

Common misconceptions

• Assuming that prime numbers can be factored into smaller integers.
• Confusing prime numbers with composite numbers during the factorization process.

Watch the explanation

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