What are prime numbers and what are composite numbers?

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What are prime numbers and what are composite numbers?

2006-09-16 09:12:49 · 2 answers · asked by Cami 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Primary & Secondary Education

2 answers

Prime numbers are numbers that cannot be divided by numbers other than themselves or 1 to get an interger or whole number. ie. 2,3,5,7,11,13, etc

Composite numbers are those that are divisible by other numbers to get an interger/whole number.

eg. 4, 6, 9, 10, etc

2006-09-16 23:42:08 · answer #1 · answered by Kevin F 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋

Prime numbers have no factors but 1.
Ex: the only factors of 5 are 5 and 1. The only factors of 23 are 23 and 1. There are no other whole numbers you can multiply to equal 5 or 23. They are prime.
Composite numbers have other factors.
Ex: the factors of 6 are 2 and 3. The factors of 24 are 2,3,4,6,8,12

2006-09-16 16:22:10 · answer #2 · answered by Alan J 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋