Factor Trees

Type: tool

Factor trees are a visual way of finding the prime factorization.

\begin{tikzpicture}[
  every node/.style={font=\large},
  level distance=1.2cm,
  sibling distance=3.2cm
]
\node {$c$}
  child {node {$d_1$}}
  child {node {$d_2$}};
\end{tikzpicture}

If
\[
  c=d_1d_2,
\]
then we can find the factors of $d_1$ and $d_2$ individually by repeating this process.

\begin{tikzpicture}[
  every node/.style={font=\large},
  level distance=1.2cm,
  sibling distance=3.2cm
]
\node {$d$}
  child {node {$p_1$}}
  child {node {$p_2$}};
\end{tikzpicture}

Eventually, we will hit the base case of factoring a composite number into $2$ primes. At that point, you can stop.