Term for continuously halving a number

[dazza555]

TL;DR Summary

What is the mathematical term for continuously halving a number until you won't result in a whole number.

It's been a long time since I've had a need for my math knowledge and as a result, sadly, a lot has been forgotten. I had a thought the other day and it has been bugging me ever since. What is the mathematical term for when you continually divide any number by 2 until you no longer get a whole number, what is the function for this?

For example if I had 8/2=4 then 4/2=2 then 2/2=1 and the answer would be 1
or
94/2=47 the answer is 47

Am I just driving myself crazy thinking there is a term or proper way of writing it when it's just simply halving a number until you can't? Ahh the mind is a terrible thing to lose.

 

[Office_Shredder]

I don't think there's a term for it. I guess you could describe it as the greatest odd divisor of the number.

 

[robphy]

Write it in binary. Shift the bits right to remove the zero bits at the end. Stop when the rightmost bit is a 1.

 

[Ibix]

Removing all the factors of two? Or finding the largest odd factor?

 

[Office_Shredder]

Write it in binary. Shift the bits right to remove the zero bits at the end. Stop when the rightmost bit is a 1.

Oh nice, we can give this a snappy name. Shift 'til you lift (the rightmost digit from a 0 to a 1).

You just mumble the parenthetical part as fast as you can.

 

[jbriggs444]

Right-normalized floating point?

 

[robphy]

Here’s a catchy name:
trim trailing zeroes...
but maybe it’s more precise to say:
trim trailing zero-bits

 

[pbuk]

My suggestion: POP Factor (product (of) odd prime factors). Could even be a television show.