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How can you tell if a number is prime?

Updated: 8/17/2019
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14y ago

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Simply divide the number in question by all natural numbers less than it(besides 1). If at least one of the quotients is whole, then it is not prime. However, I've found from my research that a number is not prime if its unit digit is 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, or 8(the exceptions are 5 and 2, which are prime), which can save some time.

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14y ago
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10y ago

A Prime number is a natural number (positive whole number) that is only divisible by 1 and itself. So prime numbers include 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, etc. A composite number, on the other hand, is a natural number that is divisible by at least one positive divisor other than one and itself. Composite numbers include 4 (divisible by 2), 6 (divisible by 2 and 3), 8 (divisible by 2 and 4), 9 (divisible by 3), 10 (divisible by 2 and 5), etc.

Some other tricks include:

  • all even numbers (except for 2) are composite
  • add up the digits, and if the sum is divisible by 3, then the number is also divisible by 3, and it's composite.
  • if a number has 2+ digits and the last digit is 0 or 5, then it's divisible by 5, and it's a composite number

If it's a composite number, then it's not a prime number.

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