To express 120 as a product of prime numbers with exponents, we first need to factor 120 into its prime components.
- Start with the number: 120
- Divide by the smallest prime number, 2:
- 120 ÷ 2 = 60
- Divide 60 by 2:
- 60 ÷ 2 = 30
- Divide 30 by 2:
- 30 ÷ 2 = 15
- Now, divide 15 by the next smallest prime number, which is 3:
- 15 ÷ 3 = 5
- The remaining number, 5, is also a prime number.
Now, we can summarize the factorization:
- We divided by 2 three times (2 × 2 × 2), which is \(2^3\).
- We divided by 3 once, which is \(3^1\).
- Finally, we have 5 once, which is \(5^1\).
Therefore, the prime factorization of 120 is:
\[ 2^3 \times 3^1 \times 5^1 \]
In your response options, this can be expressed as:
\[ 2^3 \times 3 \times 5 \]
So, the correct answer would be:
\( 2^3 \times 3 \times 5 \)