2006-12-19 05:54:59 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Other - Education
I presume you mean Prime number.
A prime number is a number that can not be evenly divided by any another number except 1.
For example, 11 is prime because no whole number times any other whole number will equal 11. 12 however is not prime because 3 times 4 equals 12.
13 is prime because no other WHOLE numbers can be multiplied to equal 13, while 15 is not because 15 can be reached by 3x5.
All prime numbers are odd, except 2. 2 is prime. All other even numbers can be reached by something times 2. Make sense?
2006-12-19 05:58:39 · answer #1 · answered by shadowmastertx 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Prime number
In mathematics, a prime number (or a prime) is a natural number that has exactly two (distinct) natural number divisors. It follows that these two divisors are 1 and the prime number itself. There exists an infinitude of prime numbers, as demonstrated by Euclid in about 300 B.C.. The first 30 prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, and 113 (sequence A000040 in OEIS); see the list of prime numbers for a longer list.
The property of being a prime is called primality, and the word prime is also used as an adjective. Since 2 is the only even prime number, the term odd prime refers to all prime numbers greater than 2.
The study of prime numbers is part of number theory, the branch of mathematics which encompasses the study of natural numbers. Prime numbers have been the subject of intense research, yet some fundamental questions, such as the Riemann hypothesis and the Goldbach conjecture, have been unresolved for more than a century. The problem of modelling the distribution of prime numbers is a popular subject of investigation for number theorists: when looking at individual numbers, the primes seem to be randomly distributed, but the "global" distribution of primes follows well-defined laws.
The notion of prime number has been generalized in many different branches of mathematics.
In ring theory, a branch of abstract algebra, the term "prime element" has a specific meaning. Here, a non-zero, non-unit ring element a is defined to be prime if whenever a divides b c for ring elements b and c, then a divides at least one of b or c. With this meaning, the additive inverse of any prime number is also prime. In other words, when considering the set of integers as a ring, − 7 is a prime element. Without further specification, however, "prime number" always means a positive integer prime. Among rings of complex algebraic integers, Eisenstein primes and Gaussian primes may also be of interest.
In knot theory, a prime knot is a knot which can not be disaggregated into a smaller prime knot.
In both the two above examples, the fundamental theorem of arithmetic (Every natural number can be 'uniquely' decomposed into a product of primes) does not apply.
Another means of understanding primes is to represent numbers geometrically in terms of their prime factorization. The number 6 would be built with a side-by-side pair of 3's (with each 3 being built as a row of three unit squares). The number 9 would be a square built with three 3's placed side-by-side. The number 8 would be a cube built with two 2's stacked on top of another pair of 2's (with each 2 being built as a row of two unit cubes). The number 27 would be a cube similar to 8, except built with three layers of 9 instead of two layers of 4. Building a sequence of such numbers provides a clear illustration that primes are all one dimensional, having length but no width. Composites are two dimensional (having length and width) or higher. The number 16 is the first four-dimensional representation, being a 2-by-2-by-2-by-2 hypercube.
2006-12-19 05:57:33 · answer #2 · answered by WelshKiwi 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I've never heard of prim numbers but ive heard of prime numbers. Prime numbers can only be divided by themselves and one...
2006-12-19 05:56:50 · answer #3 · answered by I like Cats 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Numbers that can not be evenly divided into by another number.'
1, 3, 5, 7 and so on.
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2006-12-19 06:07:03 · answer #4 · answered by tora911 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
do you mean PRIME numbers?----Numbers that only have 1 and themselves as factors in multiplication---for instance 1,2,3,5,7,11,13, etc---notice with the exception of 2 they are all odd numbers. That is because even numbers always have 2 as a factor.
2006-12-19 05:58:51 · answer #5 · answered by lexiwords 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
prime numbers are numbers that are not divisible by any other number except one and the number itself, for example: 7, 13, etc.
2006-12-19 05:57:10 · answer #6 · answered by bambi 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
numbers that total 4 when adding and 6 by duplicate divisors
2006-12-19 05:56:49 · answer #7 · answered by killer boot 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
wel, tey prim tees thre lik litle tee primers tat hep yu mm an dd ner chritmas.
2006-12-19 05:59:15 · answer #8 · answered by N T 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
numbers that are only divisible by 1 and themselves
2006-12-19 05:56:25 · answer #9 · answered by links305 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it is a whole number that can only be divided (without a remainder) by itself and one
2006-12-19 05:57:13 · answer #10 · answered by jaden404 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋