Prime number - wikipedia Prime number `` Prime '' redirects here. For other uses, see Prime ( disambiguation ). Demonstration, with Cuisenaire rods, that the number 7 is prime, being divisible only by 1 and 7 A prime number ( or a prime ) is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. A natural number greater than 1 that is not a prime number is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because 1 and 5 are its only positive integer factors, whereas 6 is composite because it has the divisors 2 and 3 in addition to 1 and 6. The fundamental theorem of arithmetic establishes the central role of primes in number theory : any integer greater than 1 is either a prime itself or can be expressed as a product of primes that is unique up to ordering. The uniqueness in this theorem requires excluding 1 as a prime because one can include arbitrarily many instances of 1 in any factorization, e.g., 3, 1 3, 1 1 3, etc. are all valid factorizations of 3. The property of being prime is called primality. A simple but slow method of verifying the primality of a given number n is known as trial division. It consists of testing whether n is a multiple of any integer between 2 and n ( displaystyle ( sqrt ( n ) ) ). Algorithms much more efficient than trial division have been devised to test the primality of large numbers. These include the Miller -- Rabin primality test, which is fast but has a small probability of error, and the AKS primality test, which always produces the correct answer in polynomial time but is too slow to be practical. Particularly fast methods are available for numbers of special forms, such as Mersenne numbers. As of January 2016, the largest known prime number has 22,338,618 decimal digits. There are infinitely many primes, as demonstrated by Euclid around 300 BC. There is no known simple formula that separates prime numbers from composite numbers. However, the distribution of primes, that is to say, the statistical behaviour of primes in the large, can be modelled. The first result in that direction is the prime number theorem, proven at the end of the 19th century, which says that the probability that a given, randomly chosen number n is prime is inversely proportional to its number of digits, or to the logarithm of n. Many questions regarding prime numbers remain open, such as Goldbach 's conjecture ( that every even integer greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes ), and the twin prime conjecture ( that there are infinitely many pairs of primes whose difference is 2 ). Such questions spurred the development of various branches of number theory, focusing on analytic or algebraic aspects of numbers. Primes are used in several routines in information technology, such as public - key cryptography, which makes use of properties such as the difficulty of factoring large numbers into their prime factors. Prime numbers give rise to various generalizations in other mathematical domains, mainly algebra, such as prime elements and prime ideals. Contents 1 Definition and examples 2 Fundamental theorem of arithmetic 2.1 Primality of one 3 History 4 Number of prime numbers 4.1 Euclid 's proof 4.2 Euler 's analytical proof 5 Testing primality and integer factorization 5.1 Trial division 5.2 Sieves 5.3 Primality testing versus primality proving 5.4 Special - purpose algorithms and the largest known prime 5.5 Integer factorization 6 Distribution 6.1 Formulas for primes 6.2 Number of prime numbers below a given number 6.3 Arithmetic progressions 6.4 Prime values of quadratic polynomials 7 Open questions 7.1 Zeta function and the Riemann hypothesis 7.2 Other conjectures 8 Applications 8.1 Arithmetic modulo a prime and finite fields 8.2 Fermat primes and constructible polygons 8.3 Other mathematical occurrences of primes 8.4 Public - key cryptography 8.5 Prime numbers in nature 9 Generalizations 9.1 Prime elements in rings 9.2 Prime ideals 9.3 Valuations 10 In games, arts, and literature 11 See also 12 Notes 13 References 14 External links 14.1 Prime number generators and calculators Definition and examples A natural number ( i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. ) is called a prime number ( or a prime ) if it has exactly two positive divisors, 1 and the number itself. Natural numbers greater than 1 that are not prime are called composite. The number 12 is not a prime, as 12 items can be placed into 3 equal - size columns of 4 each ( among other ways ). 11 items can not be all placed into several equal - size columns of more than 1 item each without some extra items leftover ( a remainder ). Therefore, the number 11 is a prime. For example, among the numbers 1 through 6, the numbers 2, 3, and 5 are the prime numbers, while 1, 4, and 6 are not prime. 1 is excluded as a prime number, for reasons explained below. 2 is a prime number, since the only natural numbers dividing it are 1 and 2. 3 is prime, as no numbers other than 1 and itself divide evenly into it. 4 is composite, since 2 is a number that divides evenly into it, in addition to 1 and itself. 5 is prime as only 1 and itself divide evenly into it. 6 is divisible by 2 and 3, therefore it is not prime. No even number greater than 2 is prime because by definition, as any such even number n has at least three distinct divisors, namely 1, 2, and n. Accordingly, the term odd prime refers to any prime number greater than 2. Similarly, when written in the usual decimal system, all prime numbers larger than 5 would end in 1, 3, 7, or 9, since even numbers are multiples of 2, and numbers ending in 0 or 5 are multiples of 5. If n is a natural number, then 1 and n divide n without remainder. Therefore, the condition of being a prime can also be restated as : a number is prime if it is greater than one and if none of 2, 3,..., n − 1 divides n ( without remainder ). Yet another way to say the same is : a number n > 1 is prime if it can not be written as a product of two integers a and b, both of which are larger than 1 : n = a b. In other words, n is prime if n items can not be divided up into smaller equal - size groups of more than one item. The set of all primes is often denoted by P. The first 168 prime numbers ( all the prime numbers less than 1000 ) 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, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, 211, 223, 227, 229, 233, 239, 241, 251, 257, 263, 269, 271, 277, 281, 283, 293, 307, 311, 313, 317, 331, 337, 347, 349, 353, 359, 367, 373, 379, 383, 389, 397, 401, 409, 419, 421, 431, 433, 439, 443, 449, 457, 461, 463, 467, 479, 487, 491, 499, 503, 509, 521, 523, 541, 547, 557, 563, 569, 571, 577, 587, 593, 599, 601, 607, 613, 617, 619, 631, 641, 643, 647, 653, 659, 661, 673, 677, 683, 691, 701, 709, 719, 727, 733, 739, 743, 751, 757, 761, 769, 773, 787, 797, 809, 811, 821, 823, 827, 829, 839, 853, 857, 859, 863, 877, 881, 883, 887, 907, 911, 919, 929, 937, 941, 947, 953, 967, 971, 977, 983, 991, 997 ( sequence A000040 in the OEIS ). Fundamental theorem of arithmetic Main article : Fundamental theorem of arithmetic The crucial importance of prime numbers to number theory and mathematics in general stems from the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, which states that every integer larger than 1 can be written as a product of one or more primes in a way that is unique except for the order of the prime factors. Primes can thus be considered the `` basic building blocks '' of the natural numbers. For example : 23244 = 2 2 3 13 149 = 2 3 13 149. ( 2 denotes the square or second power of 2. ) As in this example, the same prime factor may occur multiple times. A decomposition : n = p p... p of a number n into ( finitely many ) prime factors p, p,... to p is called prime factorization of n. The fundamental theorem of arithmetic can be rephrased so as to say that any factorization into primes will be identical except for the order of the factors. So, albeit there are many prime factorization algorithms to do this in practice for larger numbers, they all have to yield the same result. If p is a prime number and p divides a product ab of integers, then p divides a or p divides b. This proposition is known as Euclid 's lemma. It is used in some proofs of the uniqueness of prime factorizations. Primality of one Most early Greeks did not even consider 1 to be a number, so they could not consider it to be a prime. By the Middle Ages and Renaissance many mathematicians included 1 as the first prime number. In the mid-18th century Christian Goldbach listed 1 as the first prime in his famous correspondence with Leonhard Euler ; however, Euler himself did not consider 1 to be a prime number. In the 19th century many mathematicians still considered the number 1 to be a prime. For example, Derrick Norman Lehmer 's list of primes up to 10,006,721, reprinted as late as 1956, started with 1 as its first prime. Henri Lebesgue is said to be the last professional mathematician to call 1 prime. By the early 20th century, mathematicians began to arrive at the consensus that 1 is not a prime number, but rather forms its own special category as a `` unit ''. A large body of mathematical work would still be valid when calling 1 a prime, but Euclid 's fundamental theorem of arithmetic ( mentioned above ) would not hold as stated. For example, the number 15 can be factored as 3 5 and 1 3 5 ; if 1 were admitted as a prime, these two presentations would be considered different factorizations of 15 into prime numbers, so the statement of that theorem would have to be modified. Similarly, the sieve of Eratosthenes would not work correctly if 1 were considered a prime : a modified version of the sieve that considers 1 as prime would eliminate all multiples of 1 ( that is, all other numbers ) and produce as output only the single number 1. Furthermore, the prime numbers have several properties that the number 1 lacks, such as the relationship of the number to its corresponding value of Euler 's totient function or the sum of divisors function. History The Sieve of Eratosthenes is a simple algorithm for finding all prime numbers up to a specified integer. It was created in the 3rd century BC by Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek mathematician. There are hints in the surviving records of the ancient Egyptians that they had some knowledge of prime numbers : the Egyptian fraction expansions in the Rhind papyrus, for instance, have quite different forms for primes and for composites. However, the earliest surviving records of the explicit study of prime numbers come from the Ancient Greeks. Euclid 's Elements ( circa 300 BC ) contain important theorems about primes, including the infinitude of primes and the fundamental theorem of arithmetic. Euclid also showed how to construct a perfect number from a Mersenne prime. The Sieve of Eratosthenes, attributed to Eratosthenes, is a simple method to compute primes, although the large primes found today with computers are not generated this way. After the Greeks, little happened with the study of prime numbers until the 17th century. In 1640 Pierre de Fermat stated ( without proof ) Fermat 's little theorem ( later proved by Leibniz and Euler ). Fermat also conjectured that all numbers of the form 2 + 1 are prime ( they are called Fermat numbers ) and he verified this up to n = 4 ( or 2 + 1 ). However, the very next Fermat number 2 + 1 is composite ( one of its prime factors is 641 ), as Euler discovered later, and in fact no further Fermat numbers are known to be prime. The French monk Marin Mersenne looked at primes of the form 2 − 1, with p a prime. They are called Mersenne primes in his honor. Euler 's work in number theory included many results about primes. He showed the infinite series 1 / 2 + 1 / 3 + 1 / 5 + 1 / 7 + 1 / 11 +... is divergent. In 1747 he showed that the even perfect numbers are precisely the integers of the form 2 ( 2 − 1 ), where the second factor is a Mersenne prime. At the start of the 19th century, Legendre and Gauss independently conjectured that as x tends to infinity, the number of primes up to x is asymptotic to x / ln ( x ), where ln ( x ) is the natural logarithm of x. Ideas of Riemann in his 1859 paper on the zeta - function sketched a program that would lead to a proof of the prime number theorem. This outline was completed by Hadamard and de la Vallée Poussin, who independently proved the prime number theorem in 1896. Proving a number is prime is not done ( for large numbers ) by trial division. Many mathematicians have worked on primality tests for large numbers, often restricted to specific number forms. This includes Pépin 's test for Fermat numbers ( 1877 ), Proth 's theorem ( around 1878 ), the Lucas -- Lehmer primality test ( originated 1856 ), and the generalized Lucas primality test. More recent algorithms like APRT - CL, ECPP, and AKS work on arbitrary numbers but remain much slower. For a long time, prime numbers were thought to have extremely limited application outside of pure mathematics. This changed in the 1970s when the concepts of public - key cryptography were invented, in which prime numbers formed the basis of the first algorithms such as the RSA cryptosystem algorithm. Since 1951 all the largest known primes have been found by computers. The search for ever larger primes has generated interest outside mathematical circles. The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search and other distributed computing projects to find large primes have become popular, while mathematicians continue to struggle with the theory of primes. Number of prime numbers Main article : Euclid 's theorem There are infinitely many prime numbers. Another way of saying this is that the sequence 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13,... of prime numbers never ends. This statement is referred to as Euclid 's theorem in honor of the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, since the first known proof for this statement is attributed to him. Many more proofs of the infinitude of primes are known, including an analytical proof by Euler, Goldbach 's proof based on Fermat numbers, Furstenberg 's proof using general topology, and Kummer 's elegant proof. Euclid 's proof Euclid 's proof ( Book IX, Proposition 20 ) considers any finite set S of primes. The key idea is to consider the product of all these numbers plus one : N = 1 + ∏ p ∈ S p. ( displaystyle N = 1 + prod _ ( p in S ) p. ) Like any other natural number, N is divisible by at least one prime number ( it is possible that N itself is prime ). None of the primes by which N is divisible can be members of the finite set S of primes with which we started, because dividing N by any one of these leaves a remainder of 1. Therefore, the primes by which N is divisible are additional primes beyond the ones we started with. Thus any finite set of primes can be extended to a larger finite set of primes. It is often erroneously reported that Euclid begins with the assumption that the set initially considered contains all prime numbers, leading to a contradiction, or that it contains precisely the n smallest primes rather than any arbitrary finite set of primes. Today, the product of the smallest n primes plus 1 is conventionally called the nth Euclid number. Euler 's analytical proof Euler 's proof uses the partial sums of the reciprocals of primes, S ( p ) = 1 2 + 1 3 + 1 5 + 1 7 + ⋯ + 1 p. ( displaystyle S ( p ) = ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 3 ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 5 ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 7 ) ) + cdots + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( p ) ). ) For any arbitrary real number x, there exists a prime p for which this partial sum is bigger than x. This shows that there are infinitely many primes, because if there were finitely many primes the sum would reach its maximum value at the biggest prime rather than being unbounded. More precisely, the growth rate of S ( p ) is doubly logarithmic, as quantified by Mertens ' second theorem. For comparison, the sum 1 1 2 + 1 2 2 + 1 3 2 + ⋯ + 1 n 2 = ∑ i = 1 n 1 i 2 ( displaystyle ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 1 ^ ( 2 ) ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 2 ^ ( 2 ) ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 3 ^ ( 2 ) ) ) + cdots + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( n ^ ( 2 ) ) ) = sum _ ( i = 1 ) ^ ( n ) ( \frac ( 1 ) ( i ^ ( 2 ) ) ) ) does not grow to infinity as n goes to infinity ( see Basel problem ). In this sense, prime numbers occur more often than squares of natural numbers. Brun 's theorem states that the sum of the reciprocals of twin primes, ( 1 3 + 1 5 ) + ( 1 5 + 1 7 ) + ( 1 11 + 1 13 ) + ⋯ = ∑ p prime, p + 2 prime ( 1 p + 1 p + 2 ), ( displaystyle left ( ( ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 3 ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 5 ) ) ) \right ) + left ( ( ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 5 ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 7 ) ) ) \right ) + left ( ( ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 11 ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 13 ) ) ) \right ) + cdots = sum limits _ ( \begin ( smallmatrix ) p ( \text ( prime, ) ) p + 2 ( \text ( prime ) ) end ( smallmatrix ) ) ( left ( ( ( \frac ( 1 ) ( p ) ) + ( \frac ( 1 ) ( p + 2 ) ) ) \right ) ), ) is finite. Because of Brun 's theorem, it is not possible to use Euler 's method to solve the twin prime conjecture, that there exist infinitely many twin primes. Testing primality and integer factorization There are various methods to determine whether a given number n is prime. The most basic routine, trial division, is of little practical use because of its slowness. One group of modern primality tests is applicable to arbitrary numbers, while more efficient tests are available for particular numbers. Most such methods only tell whether n is prime or not. Routines also yielding one ( or all ) prime factors of n are called factorization algorithms. Trial division The most basic method of checking the primality of a given integer n is called trial division. This routine consists of dividing n by each integer m that is greater than 1 and less than or equal to the square root of n. If the result of any of these divisions is an integer, then n is not a prime, otherwise it is a prime. Indeed, if n = a b ( displaystyle n = ab ) is composite ( with a and b ≠ 1 ) then one of the factors a or b is necessarily at most n ( displaystyle ( sqrt ( n ) ) ). For example, for n = 37 ( displaystyle n = 37 ), the trial divisions are by m = 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. None of these numbers divides 37, so 37 is prime. This routine can be implemented more efficiently if a complete list of primes up to n ( displaystyle ( sqrt ( n ) ) ) is known -- then trial divisions need to be checked only for those m that are prime. For example, to check the primality of 37, only three divisions are necessary ( m = 2, 3, and 5 ), given that 4 and 6 are composite. While a simple method, trial division quickly becomes impractical for testing large integers because the number of possible factors grows too rapidly as n increases. According to the prime number theorem explained below, the number of prime numbers less than n ( displaystyle ( sqrt ( n ) ) ) is approximately given by n / ln ⁡ ( n ) ( displaystyle ( sqrt ( n ) ) / ln ( ( sqrt ( n ) ) ) ), so the algorithm may need up to this number of trial divisions to check the primality of n. For n = 10, this number is 450 million -- too large for many practical applications. Sieves An algorithm yielding all primes up to a given limit, such as required in the primes - only trial division method, is called a prime number sieve. The oldest example, the sieve of Eratosthenes ( see above ), is still the most commonly used. The sieve of Atkin is another option. Before the advent of computers, lists of primes up to bounds like 10 were also used. Primality testing versus primality proving Modern primality tests for general numbers n can be divided into two main classes, probabilistic ( or `` Monte Carlo '' ) and deterministic algorithms. Deterministic algorithms provide a way to tell for sure whether a given number is prime or not. For example, trial division is a deterministic algorithm because, if performed correctly, it will always identify a prime number as prime and a composite number as composite. Probabilistic algorithms are normally faster, but do not completely prove that a number is prime. These tests rely on testing a given number in a partly random way. For example, a given test might pass all the time if applied to a prime number, but pass only with probability p if applied to a composite number. If we repeat the test n times and pass every time, then the probability that our number is composite is 1 / ( 1 - p ), which decreases exponentially with the number of tests, so we can be as sure as we like ( though never perfectly sure ) that the number is prime. On the other hand, if the test ever fails, then we know that the number is composite. A particularly simple example of a probabilistic test is the Fermat primality test, which relies on the fact ( Fermat 's little theorem ) that n ≡ n ( mod p ) for any n if p is a prime number. If we have a number b that we want to test for primality, then we work out n ( mod b ) for a random value of n as our test. A flaw with this test is that there are some composite numbers ( the Carmichael numbers ) that satisfy the Fermat identity even though they are not prime, so the test has no way of distinguishing between prime numbers and Carmichael numbers. Carmichael numbers are substantially rarer than prime numbers, though, so this test can be useful for practical purposes. More powerful extensions of the Fermat primality test, such as the Baillie - PSW and Miller - Rabin tests, may fail at least some of the time when applied to a composite number. Deterministic algorithms do not erroneously report composite numbers as prime. In practice, the fastest such method is known as elliptic curve primality proving. Analyzing its run time is based on heuristic arguments, as opposed to the rigorously proven complexity of the more recent AKS primality test. Deterministic methods are typically slower than probabilistic ones, so the latter ones are typically applied first before a more time - consuming deterministic routine is employed. The following table lists a number of prime tests. The running time is given in terms of n, the number to be tested and, for probabilistic algorithms, the number k of tests performed. Moreover, ε is an arbitrarily small positive number, and log is the logarithm to an unspecified base. The big O notation means that, for example, elliptic curve primality proving requires a time that is bounded by a factor ( not depending on n, but on ε ) times log ( n ). Test Developed in Type Running time Notes AKS primality test 2002 deterministic O ( log ( n ) ) Elliptic curve primality proving 1977 deterministic O ( log ( n ) ) heuristically Baillie - PSW primality test 1980 probabilistic O ( log n ) no known counterexamples Miller -- Rabin primality test 1980 probabilistic O ( k log ( n ) ) error probability 4 Solovay -- Strassen primality test 1977 probabilistic O ( k log n ) error probability 2 Fermat primality test probabilistic O ( k log ( n ) ) fails for Carmichael numbers Special - purpose algorithms and the largest known prime Further information : List of prime numbers In addition to the aforementioned tests that apply to any natural number n, there are very efficient ( deterministic ) primality tests if the complete factorization of either n − 1 or n + 1 is known. For example, the Lucas ' primality test requires the knowledge of the prime factors of n − 1, while the Lucas -- Lehmer primality test needs the prime factors of n + 1. These tests can be applied to check whether n ! ± 1 = 1 2 3... n ± 1 are prime. Prime numbers of this form are known as factorial primes. Other primes where either p + 1 or p − 1 is of a particular shape include the Sophie Germain primes ( primes of the form 2p + 1 with p prime ), primorial primes, Fermat primes and Mersenne primes, that is, prime numbers that are of the form 2 − 1, where p is an arbitrary prime. The Lucas -- Lehmer test is particularly fast for numbers of this form. This is why the largest known prime has almost always been a Mersenne prime since the dawn of electronic computers. If only a partial factorization of n − 1 or n + 1 is known, there are extensions of these methods that may be able to prove that n is prime. The following table gives the largest known primes of the mentioned types. Some of these primes have been found using distributed computing. In 2009, the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search project was awarded a US $100,000 prize for first discovering a prime with at least 10 million digits. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also offers $150,000 and $250,000 for primes with at least 100 million digits and 1 billion digits, respectively. Some of the largest primes not known to have any particular form ( that is, no simple formula such as that of Mersenne primes ) have been found by taking a piece of semi-random binary data, converting it to a number n, multiplying it by 256 for some positive integer k, and searching for possible primes within the interval ( 256 n + 1, 256 ( n + 1 ) − 1 ). Type Prime Number of decimal digits Date Found by Mersenne prime 2 − 1 22,338,618 January 7, 2016 Curtis Cooper, Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search not a Mersenne prime ( Proth number ) 10,223 × 2 + 1 9,383,761 October 31, 2016 Péter Szabolcs, PrimeGrid factorial prime 208,003 ! − 1 1,015,843 July 2016 Sou Fukui primorial prime 1,098,133 # - 1 476,311 March 2012 James P. Burt, PrimeGrid twin primes 2,996,863,034,895 × 2 ± 1 388,342 September 2016 Tom Greer, PrimeGrid Integer factorization Main article : Integer factorization Given a composite integer n, the task of providing one ( or all ) prime factors is referred to as factorization of n. Elliptic curve factorization is an algorithm relying on arithmetic on an elliptic curve. Distribution In 1975, number theorist Don Zagier commented that primes both grow like weeds among the natural numbers, seeming to obey no other law than that of chance ( but also ) exhibit stunning regularity ( and ) that there are laws governing their behavior, and that they obey these laws with almost military precision. The distribution of primes in the large, such as the question how many primes are smaller than a given, large threshold, is described by the prime number theorem, but no efficient formula for the n - th prime is known. There are arbitrarily long sequences of consecutive non-primes, as for every positive integer n ( displaystyle n ) the n ( displaystyle n ) consecutive integers from ( n + 1 ) ! + 2 ( displaystyle ( n + 1 ) ! + 2 ) to ( n + 1 ) ! + n + 1 ( displaystyle ( n + 1 ) ! + n + 1 ) ( inclusive ) are all composite ( as ( n + 1 ) ! + k ( displaystyle ( n + 1 ) ! + k ) is divisible by k ( displaystyle k ) for k ( displaystyle k ) between 2 ( displaystyle 2 ) and n + 1 ( displaystyle n + 1 ) ). Dirichlet 's theorem on arithmetic progressions, in its basic form, asserts that linear polynomials p ( n ) = a + b n ( displaystyle p ( n ) = a + bn ) with coprime integers a and b take infinitely many prime values. Stronger forms of the theorem state that the sum of the reciprocals of these prime values diverges, and that different such polynomials with the same b have approximately the same proportions of primes. The corresponding question for quadratic polynomials is less well understood. Formulas for primes Main article : Formulas for primes There is no known efficient formula for primes. For example, there is no non-constant polynomial, even in several variables, that takes only prime values. However, there are numerous expressions that do encode all primes, or only primes. One possible formula is based on Wilson 's theorem and generates the number 2 many times and all other primes exactly once. There is also a set of Diophantine equations in 9 variables and one parameter with the following property : the parameter is prime if and only if the resulting system of equations has a solution over the natural numbers. This can be used to obtain a single formula with the property that all its positive values are prime. Other examples of prime - generating formulas come from Mills ' theorem and a theorem of Wright. These assert that there are real constants A > 1 and μ such that ⌊ A 3 n ⌋ and ⌊ 2... 2 2 μ ⌋ ( displaystyle left lfloor A ^ ( 3 ^ ( n ) ) \right \rfloor ( \text ( and ) ) left lfloor 2 ^ ( dots ^ ( 2 ^ ( 2 ^ ( mu ) ) ) ) \right \rfloor ) are prime for any natural number n in the first formula, and any number of exponents in the second formula. Here ⌊ − ⌋ ( displaystyle lfloor - \rfloor ) represents the floor function, i.e., the largest integer not greater than the number in question. However, computing A or μ requires the knowledge of infinitely many primes to begin with. Number of prime numbers below a given number Main articles : Prime number theorem and Prime - counting function A chart depicting π ( n ) ( blue ), n / ln ( n ) ( green ) and Li ( n ) ( red ) The prime counting function π ( n ) is defined as the number of primes not greater than n. For example, π ( 11 ) = 5, since there are five primes less than or equal to 11. There are known algorithms to compute exact values of π ( n ) faster than it would be possible to compute each prime up to n. The prime number theorem states that π ( n ) satisfies π ( n ) ∼ n ln ⁡ n, ( displaystyle pi ( n ) sim ( \frac ( n ) ( ln n ) ), ) which means that the ratio of π ( n ) and the right hand fraction approaches 1 when n grows to infinity. This implies that the likelihood that a number less than n is prime is ( approximately ) inversely proportional to the number of digits in n. A more accurate estimate for π ( n ) is given by the offset logarithmic integral Li ⁡ ( n ) = ∫ 2 n d t ln ⁡ t. ( displaystyle operatorname ( Li ) ( n ) = int _ ( 2 ) ^ ( n ) ( \frac ( dt ) ( ln t ) ). ) The prime number theorem also implies estimates for the size of the n - th prime number p ( i.e., p = 2, p = 3, etc. ) : up to a bounded factor, p grows like n log ( n ). In particular, the prime gaps, i.e. the differences p − p of two consecutive primes, become arbitrarily large. This latter statement can also be seen in a more elementary way by noting that the sequence n ! + 2, n ! + 3,..., n ! + n ( for the notation n ! read factorial ) consists of n − 1 composite numbers, for any natural number n. However, n − 1 composite numbers do make up gaps much smaller than n !. For example, with n − 1 = 7, the first prime gap of 8 is between the primes 89 and 97 while 8 ! = 40320. Arithmetic progressions An arithmetic progression is the set of natural numbers that give the same remainder when divided by some fixed number q called modulus. For example, 3, 12, 21, 30, 39,..., is an arithmetic progression modulo q = 9. Except for 3, none of these numbers is prime, since 3 + 9n = 3 ( 1 + 3n ) so that the remaining numbers in this progression are all composite. ( In general terms, all prime numbers above q are of the form q # n + m, where 0 < m < q #, and m has no prime factor ≤ q. ) Thus, the progression a, a + q, a + 2q, a + 3q,... can have infinitely many primes only when a and q are coprime, i.e., their greatest common divisor is one. If this necessary condition is satisfied, Dirichlet 's theorem on arithmetic progressions asserts that the progression contains infinitely many primes. The picture below illustrates this with q = 9 : the numbers are `` wrapped around '' as soon as a multiple of 9 is passed. Primes are highlighted in red. The rows ( = progressions ) starting with a = 3, 6, or 9 contain at most one prime number. In all other rows ( a = 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 ) there are infinitely many prime numbers. What is more, the primes are distributed equally among those rows in the long run -- the density of all primes congruent a modulo 9 is 1 / 6. The Green -- Tao theorem shows that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions consisting of primes. An odd prime p is expressible as the sum of two squares, p = x + y, exactly if p is congruent 1 modulo 4 ( Fermat 's theorem on sums of two squares ). Prime values of quadratic polynomials The Ulam spiral. Red pixels show prime numbers. Primes of the form 4n − 2n + 41 are highlighted in blue. Euler noted that the function n 2 + n + 41 ( displaystyle n ^ ( 2 ) + n + 41 ) yields prime numbers for 0 ≤ n < 40, a fact leading into deep algebraic number theory : more specifically, Heegner numbers. For greater n, the expression also produces composite values. The Hardy - Littlewood conjecture F makes an asymptotic prediction about the density of primes among the values of quadratic polynomials ( with integer coefficients a, b, and c ), f ( n ) = a x 2 + b x + c, ( displaystyle f ( n ) = ax ^ ( 2 ) + bx + c, ) in terms of Li ( n ) and the coefficients a, b, and c. However, progress has been difficult. No quadratic polynomial ( with a ≠ 0 ) is known to take infinitely many prime values. The Ulam spiral depicts all natural numbers in a spiral - like way. Primes cluster on certain diagonals and not others, suggesting that some quadratic polynomials take prime values more often than others. The example below displays concentrations of prime numbers ( blue background ) from 41 to 1001 arranged in an Ulam spiral with a start value of 41 ( green background numbers are numbers with just 3 divisors, and red background are numbers with a large number of divisors ). 941 940 939 938 937 936 935 934 933 932 931 930 929 928 927 926 925 924 923 922 921 920 919 918 917 916 915 914 913 912 911 942 825 824 823 822 821 820 819 818 817 816 815 814 813 812 811 810 809 808 807 806 805 804 803 802 801 800 799 798 797 910 943 826 717 716 715 714 713 712 711 710 709 708 707 706 705 704 703 702 701 700 699 698 697 696 695 694 693 692 691 796 909 944 827 718 617 616 615 614 613 612 611 610 609 608 607 606 605 604 603 602 601 600 599 598 597 596 595 594 593 690 795 908 945 828 719 618 525 524 523 522 521 520 519 518 517 516 515 514 513 512 511 510 509 508 507 506 505 504 503 592 689 794 907 946 829 720 619 526 441 440 439 438 437 436 435 434 433 432 431 430 429 428 427 426 425 424 423 422 421 502 591 688 793 906 947 830 721 620 527 442 365 364 363 362 361 360 359 358 357 356 355 354 353 352 351 350 349 348 347 420 501 590 687 792 905 948 831 722 621 528 443 366 297 296 295 294 293 292 291 290 289 288 287 286 285 284 283 282 281 346 419 500 589 686 791 904 949 832 723 622 529 444 367 298 237 236 235 234 233 232 231 230 229 228 227 226 225 224 223 280 345 418 499 588 685 790 903 950 833 724 623 530 445 368 299 238 185 184 183 182 181 180 179 178 177 176 175 174 173 222 279 344 417 498 587 684 789 902 951 834 725 624 531 446 369 300 239 186 141 140 139 138 137 136 135 134 133 132 131 172 221 278 343 416 497 586 683 788 901 952 835 726 625 532 447 370 301 240 187 142 105 104 103 102 101 100 99 98 97 130 171 220 277 342 415 496 585 682 787 900 953 836 727 626 533 448 371 302 241 188 143 106 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 96 129 170 219 276 341 414 495 584 681 786 899 954 837 728 627 534 449 372 303 242 189 144 107 78 57 56 55 54 53 70 95 128 169 218 275 340 413 494 583 680 785 898 955 838 729 628 535 450 373 304 243 190 145 108 79 58 45 44 43 52 69 94 127 168 217 274 339 412 493 582 679 784 897 956 839 730 629 536 451 374 305 244 191 146 109 80 59 46 41 42 51 68 93 126 167 216 273 338 411 492 581 678 783 896 957 840 731 630 537 452 375 306 245 192 147 110 81 60 47 48 49 50 67 92 125 166 215 272 337 410 491 580 677 782 895 958 841 732 631 538 453 376 307 246 193 148 111 82 61 62 63 64 65 66 91 124 165 214 271 336 409 490 579 676 781 894 959 842 733 632 539 454 377 308 247 194 149 112 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 123 164 213 270 335 408 489 578 675 780 893 960 843 734 633 540 455 378 309 248 195 150 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 163 212 269 334 407 488 577 674 779 892 961 844 735 634 541 456 379 310 249 196 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 211 268 333 406 487 576 673 778 891 962 845 736 635 542 457 380 311 250 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 267 332 405 486 575 672 777 890 963 846 737 636 543 458 381 312 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 331 404 485 574 671 776 889 964 847 738 637 544 459 382 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 403 484 573 670 775 888 965 848 739 638 545 460 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 483 572 669 774 887 966 849 740 639 546 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 571 668 773 886 967 850 741 640 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 667 772 885 968 851 742 641 642 643 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 771 884 969 852 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 883 970 853 854 855 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864 865 866 867 868 869 870 871 872 873 874 875 876 877 878 879 880 881 882 971 972 973 974 975 976 977 978 979 980 981 982 983 984 985 986 987 988 989 990 991 992 993 994 995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001 Open questions Zeta function and the Riemann hypothesis Main article : Riemann hypothesis Plot of the zeta function ζ ( s ). At s = 1, the function has a pole, that is to say, it tends to infinity. The Riemann zeta function ζ ( s ) is defined as an infinite sum ζ ( s ) = ∑ n = 1 ∞ 1 n s, ( displaystyle zeta ( s ) = sum _ ( n = 1 ) ^ ( infty ) ( \frac ( 1 ) ( n ^ ( s ) ) ), ) where s is a complex number with real part bigger than 1. It is a consequence of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic that this sum agrees with the infinite product ∏ p prime 1 1 − p − s. ( displaystyle prod _ ( p ( \text ( prime ) ) ) ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 1 - p ^ ( - s ) ) ). ) The zeta function is closely related to prime numbers. For example, the aforementioned fact that there are infinitely many primes can also be seen using the zeta function : if there were only finitely many primes then ζ ( 1 ) would have a finite value. However, the harmonic series 1 + 1 / 2 + 1 / 3 + 1 / 4 +... diverges ( i.e., exceeds any given number ), so there must be infinitely many primes. Another example of the richness of the zeta function and a glimpse of modern algebraic number theory is the following identity ( Basel problem ), due to Euler, ζ ( 2 ) = ∏ p 1 1 − p − 2 = π 2 6. ( displaystyle zeta ( 2 ) = prod _ ( p ) ( \frac ( 1 ) ( 1 - p ^ ( - 2 ) ) ) = ( \frac ( pi ^ ( 2 ) ) ( 6 ) ). ) The reciprocal of ζ ( 2 ), 6 / π, is the probability that two numbers selected at random are relatively prime. The unproven Riemann hypothesis, dating from 1859, states that except for s = − 2, − 4,..., all zeroes of the ζ - function have real part equal to 1 / 2. The connection to prime numbers is that it essentially says that the primes are as regularly distributed as possible. From a physical viewpoint, it roughly states that the irregularity in the distribution of primes only comes from random noise. From a mathematical viewpoint, it roughly states that the asymptotic distribution of primes ( about x / log x of numbers less than x are primes, the prime number theorem ) also holds for much shorter intervals of length about the square root of x ( for intervals near x ). This hypothesis is generally believed to be correct. In particular, the simplest assumption is that primes should have no significant irregularities without good reason. Other conjectures Further information : Category : Conjectures about prime numbers In addition to the Riemann hypothesis, many more conjectures revolving about primes have been posed. Often having an elementary formulation, many of these conjectures have withstood a proof for decades : all four of Landau 's problems from 1912 are still unsolved. One of them is Goldbach 's conjecture, which asserts that every even integer n greater than 2 can be written as a sum of two primes. As of February 2011, this conjecture has been verified for all numbers up to n = 2 10. Weaker statements than this have been proven, for example Vinogradov 's theorem says that every sufficiently large odd integer can be written as a sum of three primes. Chen 's theorem says that every sufficiently large even number can be expressed as the sum of a prime and a semiprime, the product of two primes. Also, any even integer can be written as the sum of six primes. The branch of number theory studying such questions is called additive number theory. Other conjectures deal with the question whether an infinity of prime numbers subject to certain constraints exists. It is conjectured that there are infinitely many Fibonacci primes and infinitely many Mersenne primes, but not Fermat primes. It is not known whether or not there are an infinite number of Wieferich primes and of prime Euclid numbers. A third type of conjectures concerns aspects of the distribution of primes. It is conjectured that there are infinitely many twin primes, pairs of primes with difference 2 ( twin prime conjecture ). Polignac 's conjecture is a strengthening of that conjecture, it states that for every positive integer n, there are infinitely many pairs of consecutive primes that differ by 2n. It is conjectured there are infinitely many primes of the form n + 1. These conjectures are special cases of the broad Schinzel 's hypothesis H. Brocard 's conjecture says that there are always at least four primes between the squares of consecutive primes greater than 2. Legendre 's conjecture states that there is a prime number between n and ( n + 1 ) for every positive integer n. It is implied by the stronger Cramér 's conjecture. Applications For a long time, number theory in general, and the study of prime numbers in particular, was seen as the canonical example of pure mathematics, with no applications outside of the self - interest of studying the topic with the exception of use of prime numbered gear teeth to distribute wear evenly. In particular, number theorists such as British mathematician G.H. Hardy prided themselves on doing work that had absolutely no military significance. However, this vision was shattered in the 1970s, when it was publicly announced that prime numbers could be used as the basis for the creation of public key cryptography algorithms. Prime numbers are also used for hash tables and pseudorandom number generators. Some rotor machines were designed with a different number of pins on each rotor, with the number of pins on any one rotor either prime, or coprime to the number of pins on any other rotor. This helped generate the full cycle of possible rotor positions before repeating any position. The International Standard Book Numbers work with a check digit, which exploits the fact that 11 is a prime. Arithmetic modulo a prime and finite fields Main article : Modular arithmetic Modular arithmetic modifies usual arithmetic by only using the numbers ( 0, 1, 2,..., n − 1 ), ( displaystyle ( 0, 1, 2, dots, n - 1 ), ) where n is a fixed natural number called modulus. Calculating sums, differences and products is done as usual, but whenever a negative number or a number greater than n − 1 occurs, it gets replaced by the remainder after division by n. For instance, for n = 7, the sum 3 + 5 is 1 instead of 8, since 8 divided by 7 has remainder 1. This is referred to by saying `` 3 + 5 is congruent to 1 modulo 7 '' and is denoted 3 + 5 ≡ 1 ( mod 7 ). ( displaystyle 3 + 5 equiv 1 ( pmod ( 7 ) ). ) Similarly, 6 + 1 ≡ 0 ( mod 7 ), 2 − 5 ≡ 4 ( mod 7 ), since − 3 + 7 = 4, and 3 4 ≡ 5 ( mod 7 ) as 12 has remainder 5. Standard properties of addition and multiplication familiar from the integers remain valid in modular arithmetic. In the parlance of abstract algebra, the above set of integers, which is also denoted Z / nZ, is therefore a commutative ring for any n. Division, however, is not in general possible in this setting. For example, for n = 6, the equation 3 ⋅ x ≡ 2 ( mod 6 ), ( displaystyle 3 cdot x equiv 2 ( pmod ( 6 ) ), ) a solution x of which would be an analogue of 2 / 3, can not be solved, as one can see by calculating 3 0,..., 3 5 modulo 6. The distinctive feature of prime numbers is the following : division is possible in modular arithmetic if and only if n is a prime. Equivalently, n is prime if and only if all integers m satisfying 2 ≤ m ≤ n − 1 are coprime to n, i.e. their only common divisor is one. Indeed, for n = 7, the equation 3 ⋅ x ≡ 2 ( mod ⁡ 7 ), ( displaystyle 3 cdot x equiv 2 ( operatorname ( mod ) 7 ), ) has a unique solution, x = 3. Because of this, for any prime p, Z / pZ ( also denoted F ) is called a field or, more specifically, a finite field since it contains finitely many, namely p, elements. A number of theorems can be derived from inspecting F in this abstract way. For example, Fermat 's little theorem, stating a p − 1 ≡ 1 ( mod ⁡ p ) ( displaystyle a ^ ( p - 1 ) equiv 1 ( operatorname ( mod ) p ) ) for any integer a not divisible by p, may be proved using these notions. This implies ∑ a = 1 p − 1 a p − 1 ≡ ( p − 1 ) ⋅ 1 ≡ − 1 ( mod p ). ( displaystyle sum _ ( a = 1 ) ^ ( p - 1 ) a ^ ( p - 1 ) equiv ( p - 1 ) cdot 1 equiv - 1 ( pmod ( p ) ). ) Giuga 's conjecture says that this equation is also a sufficient condition for p to be prime. Another consequence of Fermat 's little theorem is the following : if p is a prime number other than 2 and 5, / is always a recurring decimal, whose period is p − 1 or a divisor of p − 1. The fraction / expressed likewise in base q ( rather than base 10 ) has similar effect, provided that p is not a prime factor of q. Wilson 's theorem says that an integer p > 1 is prime if and only if the factorial ( p − 1 ) ! + 1 is divisible by p. Moreover, an integer n > 4 is composite if and only if ( n − 1 ) ! is divisible by n. Fermat primes and constructible polygons Construction of a regular pentagon. 5 is a Fermat prime. Fermat primes are primes of the form F = 2 + 1, with k a natural number. They are named after Pierre de Fermat, who conjectured that all such numbers are prime. This was based on the evidence of the first five numbers in this series -- 3, 5, 17, 257, and 65,537 -- being prime. However, F is composite and so are all other Fermat numbers that have been verified as of 2015. A regular n - gon is constructible using straightedge and compass if and only if the odd prime factors of n ( if any ) are distinct Fermat primes. Other mathematical occurrences of primes Many mathematical domains make great use of prime numbers. An example from the theory of finite groups are the Sylow theorems : if G is a finite group and p is the highest power of the prime p that divides the order of G, then G has a subgroup of order p. Also, any group of prime order is cyclic ( Lagrange 's theorem ). Public - key cryptography Main article : Public - key cryptography Several public - key cryptography algorithms, such as RSA and the Diffie -- Hellman key exchange, are based on large prime numbers ( 2048 - bit primes are common ). RSA relies on the assumption that it is much easier ( i.e., more efficient ) to perform the multiplication of two ( large ) numbers x and y than to calculate x and y ( assumed coprime ) if only the product xy is known. The Diffie -- Hellman key exchange relies on the fact that there are efficient algorithms for modular exponentiation, while the reverse operation the discrete logarithm is thought to be a hard problem. Prime numbers in nature The evolutionary strategy used by cicadas of the genus Magicicada make use of prime numbers. These insects spend most of their lives as grubs underground. They only pupate and then emerge from their burrows after 7, 13 or 17 years, at which point they fly about, breed, and then die after a few weeks at most. The logic for this is believed to be that the prime number intervals between emergences make it very difficult for predators to evolve that could specialize as predators on Magicicadas. If Magicicadas appeared at a non-prime number intervals, say every 12 years, then predators appearing every 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12 years would be sure to meet them. Over a 200 - year period, average predator populations during hypothetical outbreaks of 14 - and 15 - year cicadas would be up to 2 % higher than during outbreaks of 13 - and 17 - year cicadas. Though small, this advantage appears to have been enough to drive natural selection in favour of a prime - numbered life - cycle for these insects. There is speculation that the zeros of the zeta function are connected to the energy levels of complex quantum systems. Generalizations The concept of prime number is so important that it has been generalized in different ways in various branches of mathematics. Generally, `` prime '' indicates minimality or indecomposability, in an appropriate sense. For example, the prime field is the smallest subfield of a field F containing both 0 and 1. It is either Q or the finite field with p elements, whence the name. Often a second, additional meaning is intended by using the word prime, namely that any object can be, essentially uniquely, decomposed into its prime components. For example, in knot theory, a prime knot is a knot that is indecomposable in the sense that it can not be written as the knot sum of two nontrivial knots. Any knot can be uniquely expressed as a connected sum of prime knots. Prime models and prime 3 - manifolds are other examples of this type. Prime elements in rings Main articles : Prime element and Irreducible element Prime numbers give rise to two more general concepts that apply to elements of any commutative ring R, an algebraic structure where addition, subtraction and multiplication are defined : prime elements and irreducible elements. An element p of R is called prime element if it is neither zero nor a unit ( i.e., does not have a multiplicative inverse ) and satisfies the following requirement : given x and y in R such that p divides the product xy, then p divides x or y. An element is irreducible if it is not a unit and can not be written as a product of two ring elements that are not units. In the ring Z of integers, the set of prime elements equals the set of irreducible elements, which is (..., − 11, − 7, − 5, − 3, − 2, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11,... ). ( displaystyle ( dots, - 11, - 7, - 5, - 3, - 2, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, dots ) ,. ) In any ring R, any prime element is irreducible. The converse does not hold in general, but does hold for unique factorization domains. The fundamental theorem of arithmetic continues to hold in unique factorization domains. An example of such a domain is the Gaussian integers Z ( i ), that is, the set of complex numbers of the form a + bi where i denotes the imaginary unit and a and b are arbitrary integers. Its prime elements are known as Gaussian primes. Not every prime ( in Z ) is a Gaussian prime : in the bigger ring Z ( i ), 2 factors into the product of the two Gaussian primes ( 1 + i ) and ( 1 − i ). Rational primes ( i.e. prime elements in Z ) of the form 4k + 3 are Gaussian primes, whereas rational primes of the form 4k + 1 are not. Prime ideals Main article : Prime ideals In ring theory, the notion of number is generally replaced with that of ideal. Prime ideals, which generalize prime elements in the sense that the principal ideal generated by a prime element is a prime ideal, are an important tool and object of study in commutative algebra, algebraic number theory and algebraic geometry. The prime ideals of the ring of integers are the ideals ( 0 ), ( 2 ), ( 3 ), ( 5 ), ( 7 ), ( 11 ),... The fundamental theorem of arithmetic generalizes to the Lasker -- Noether theorem, which expresses every ideal in a Noetherian commutative ring as an intersection of primary ideals, which are the appropriate generalizations of prime powers. Prime ideals are the points of algebro - geometric objects, via the notion of the spectrum of a ring. Arithmetic geometry also benefits from this notion, and many concepts exist in both geometry and number theory. For example, factorization or ramification of prime ideals when lifted to an extension field, a basic problem of algebraic number theory, bears some resemblance with ramification in geometry. Such ramification questions occur even in number - theoretic questions solely concerned with integers. For example, prime ideals in the ring of integers of quadratic number fields can be used in proving quadratic reciprocity, a statement that concerns the solvability of quadratic equations x 2 ≡ p ( mod q ), ( displaystyle x ^ ( 2 ) equiv p ( ( \text ( mod ) ) q ), ) where x is an integer and p and q are ( usual ) prime numbers. Early attempts to prove Fermat 's Last Theorem climaxed when Kummer introduced regular primes, primes satisfying a certain requirement concerning the failure of unique factorization in the ring consisting of expressions a 0 + a 1 ζ + ⋯ + a p − 1 ζ p − 1, ( displaystyle a_ ( 0 ) + a_ ( 1 ) zeta + cdots + a_ ( p - 1 ) zeta ^ ( p - 1 ) ,, ) where a,..., a are integers and ζ is a complex number such that ζ = 1. Valuations Valuation theory studies certain functions from a field K to the real numbers R called valuations. Every such valuation yields a topology on K, and two valuations are called equivalent if they yield the same topology. A prime of K ( sometimes called a place of K ) is an equivalence class of valuations. For example, the p - adic valuation of a rational number q is defined to be the integer v ( q ), such that q = p v p ( q ) r s, ( displaystyle q = p ^ ( v_ ( p ) ( q ) ) ( \frac ( r ) ( s ) ), ) where both r and s are not divisible by p. For example, v ( 18 / 7 ) = 2. The p - adic norm is defined as q p : = p − v p ( q ). ( displaystyle left q \right _ ( p ) : = p ^ ( - v_ ( p ) ( q ) ). ) In particular, this norm gets smaller when a number is multiplied by p, in sharp contrast to the usual absolute value ( also referred to as the infinite prime ). While completing Q ( roughly, filling the gaps ) with respect to the absolute value yields the field of real numbers, completing with respect to the p - adic norm − yields the field of p - adic numbers. These are essentially all possible ways to complete Q, by Ostrowski 's theorem. Certain arithmetic questions related to Q or more general global fields may be transferred back and forth to the completed ( or local ) fields. This local - global principle again underlines the importance of primes to number theory. In games, arts, and literature Prime numbers have influenced many artists and writers. The French composer Olivier Messiaen used prime numbers to create ametrical music through `` natural phenomena ''. In works such as La Nativité du Seigneur ( 1935 ) and Quatre études de rythme ( 1949 -- 50 ), he simultaneously employs motifs with lengths given by different prime numbers to create unpredictable rhythms : the primes 41, 43, 47 and 53 appear in the third étude, `` Neumes rythmiques ''. According to Messiaen this way of composing was `` inspired by the movements of nature, movements of free and unequal durations ''. In his science fiction novel Contact, NASA scientist Carl Sagan suggested that prime numbers could be used as a means of communicating with aliens, an idea that he had first developed informally with American astronomer Frank Drake in 1975. In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Time by Mark Haddon, the narrator arranges the sections of the story by consecutive prime numbers. Many films, such as Cube, Sneakers, The Mirror Has Two Faces and A Beautiful Mind reflect a popular fascination with the mysteries of prime numbers and cryptography. Prime numbers are used as a metaphor for loneliness and isolation in the Paolo Giordano novel The Solitude of Prime Numbers, in which they are portrayed as `` outsiders '' among integers. See also Adleman -- Pomerance -- Rumely primality test Bonse 's inequality Brun sieve Burnside theorem Chebotarev 's density theorem Chinese remainder theorem Cullen number Illegal prime List of prime numbers Multiplicative number theory Number field sieve Pépin 's test Practical number Prime k - tuple Primon gas Quadratic residuosity problem Ramanujan prime Regular prime RSA number Smooth number Super-prime Woodall number Notes Jump up ^ Dudley, Underwood ( 1978 ), Elementary number theory ( 2nd ed. ), W.H. Freeman and Co., ISBN 978 - 0 - 7167 - 0076 - 0, p. 10, section 2 Jump up ^ Dudley 1978, Section 2, Theorem 2 Jump up ^ Dudley 1978, Section 2, Lemma 5 Jump up ^ See, for example, David E. Joyce 's commentary on Euclid 's Elements, Book VII, definitions 1 and 2. ^ Jump up to : Why is the number one not prime ? ( from the Prime Pages ' list of frequently asked questions ) by Chris K. Caldwell. Jump up ^ See for instance : L. Euler. Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae 9 ( 1737 ), 160 - 188. Variae observationes circa series infinitas, Theorema 19, p. 187. Jump up ^ Riesel 1994, p. 36 Jump up ^ Conway & Guy 1996, pp. 129 -- 130 Jump up ^ Derbyshire, John ( 2003 ), `` The Prime Number Theorem '', Prime Obsession : Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, Washington, D.C. : Joseph Henry Press, p. 33, ISBN 978 - 0 - 309 - 08549 - 6, OCLC 249210614 Jump up ^ `` '' Arguments for and against the primality of 1 ``. Jump up ^ The Largest Known Prime by Year : A Brief History Prime Curios ! : 17014... 05727 ( 39 - digits ) Jump up ^ For instance, Beiler writes that number theorist Ernst Kummer loved his ideal numbers, closely related to the primes, `` because they had not soiled themselves with any practical applications '', and Katz writes that Edmund Landau, known for his work on the distribution of primes, `` loathed practical applications of mathematics '', and for this reason avoided subjects such as geometry that had already shown themselves to be useful. Beiler, Albert H. ( 1966 ), Recreations in the Theory of Numbers : The Queen of Mathematics Entertains, Dover, p. 2, ISBN 9780486210964. Katz, Shaul ( 2004 ), `` Berlin roots -- Zionist incarnation : the ethos of pure mathematics and the beginnings of the Einstein Institute of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem '', Science in Context, 17 ( 1 - 2 ) : 199 -- 234, doi : 10.1017 / S0269889704000092, MR 2089305. Jump up ^ Letter in Latin from Goldbach to Euler, July 1730. Jump up ^ Furstenberg 1955 Jump up ^ Ribenboim 2004, p. 4 Jump up ^ James Williamson ( translator and commentator ), The Elements of Euclid, With Dissertations, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1782, page 63, English translation of Euclid 's proof Jump up ^ Hardy, Michael ; Woodgold, Catherine ( 2009 ). `` Prime Simplicity ''. Mathematical Intelligencer. 31 ( 4 ) : 44 -- 52. doi : 10.1007 / s00283 - 009 - 9064 - 8. Jump up ^ Apostol, Tom M. ( 1976 ), Introduction to Analytic Number Theory, Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 90163 - 3, Section 1.6, Theorem 1.13 Jump up ^ Apostol 1976, Section 4.8, Theorem 4.12 Jump up ^ ( Lehmer 1909 ). Jump up ^ John Brillhart ; D.H. Lehmer ; J.L. Selfridge ( April 1975 ). `` New Primality Criteria and Factorizations of 2 ± 1 ''. Mathematics of Computation. 29 ( 130 ) : 620 -- 647. doi : 10.1090 / S0025 - 5718 - 1975 - 0384673 - 1. JSTOR 2005583. Jump up ^ `` Record 12 - Million - Digit Prime Number Nets $100,000 Prize ''. Electronic Frontier Foundation. October 14, 2009. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 04. Jump up ^ `` EFF Cooperative Computing Awards ''. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 2010 - 01 - 04. Jump up ^ Cooper, Curtis. `` Mersenne Prime Number discovery - 2 - 1 is Prime ! ''. Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. Mersenne Research, Inc. Retrieved 19 January 2016. Jump up ^ `` PrimeGrid 's Seventeen or Bust Subproject '' ( PDF ). Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 03. Jump up ^ Chris K. Caldwell. `` The Top Twenty : Largest Known Primes ''. The Prime Pages. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 03. Jump up ^ Chris K. Caldwell. `` The Top Twenty : Factorial ''. The Prime Pages. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 03. Jump up ^ Chris K. Caldwell. `` The Top Twenty : Primorial ''. The Prime Pages. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 03. Jump up ^ Chris K. Caldwell. `` The Top Twenty : Twin Primes ''. The Prime Pages. Retrieved 2017 - 01 - 03. Jump up ^ Havil 2003, p. 171 Jump up ^ Matiyasevich, Yuri V. ( 1999 ), `` Formulas for Prime Numbers '', in Tabachnikov, Serge, Kvant Selecta : Algebra and Analysis, II, American Mathematical Society, pp. 13 -- 24, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8218 - 1915 - 9. Jump up ^ E.M. Wright ( 1951 ). `` A prime - representing function ''. American Mathematical Monthly. 58 ( 9 ) : 616 -- 618. doi : 10.2307 / 2306356. JSTOR 2306356. Jump up ^ Kvant Selecta : Algebra and Analysis, Volume 2, edited by Serge Tabachnikov, p. 15 Jump up ^ ( Tom M. Apostol 1976 ), Section 4.6, Theorem 4.7 Jump up ^ ( Ben Green & Terence Tao 2008 ). Jump up ^ Hua ( 2009 ), pp. 176 -- 177 '' Jump up ^ See list of values, calculated by Wolfram Alpha Jump up ^ Caldwell, Chris. `` What is the probability that gcd ( n, m ) = 1 ? ''. The Prime Pages. Retrieved 2013 - 09 - 06. Jump up ^ C.S. Ogilvy & J.T. Anderson Excursions in Number Theory, pp. 29 -- 35, Dover Publications Inc., 1988 ISBN 0 - 486 - 25778 - 9 Jump up ^ Tomás Oliveira e Silva ( 2011 - 04 - 09 ). `` Goldbach conjecture verification ''. Ieeta.pt. Retrieved 2011 - 05 - 21. Jump up ^ Ramaré, O. ( 1995 ), `` On šnirel'man's constant '', Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Classe di Scienze. Serie IV, 22 ( 4 ) : 645 -- 706, retrieved 2008 - 08 - 22. Jump up ^ Caldwell, Chris, The Top Twenty : Lucas Number at The Prime Pages. Jump up ^ E.g., see Guy 1981, problem A3, pp. 7 -- 8 Jump up ^ Tattersall, J.J. ( 2005 ), Elementary number theory in nine chapters, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 85014 - 8, p. 112 Jump up ^ Weisstein, Eric W. `` Landau 's Problems ''. MathWorld. Jump up ^ Hardy 1940 `` No one has yet discovered any warlike purpose to be served by the theory of numbers or relativity, and it seems unlikely that anyone will do so for many years. '' Jump up ^ Goles, E. ; Schulz, O. ; Markus, M. ( 2001 ). `` Prime number selection of cycles in a predator - prey model ''. Complexity. 6 ( 4 ) : 33 -- 38. doi : 10.1002 / cplx. 1040. Jump up ^ Paulo R.A. Campos ; Viviane M. de Oliveira ; Ronaldo Giro & Douglas S. Galvão. ( 2004 ), `` Emergence of Prime Numbers as the Result of Evolutionary Strategy '', Physical Review Letters, 93 ( 9 ) : 098107, arXiv : q - bio / 0406017, Bibcode : 2004PhRvL... 93i8107C, doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevLett. 93.098107. Jump up ^ `` Invasion of the Brood ''. The Economist. May 6, 2004. Retrieved 2006 - 11 - 26. Jump up ^ Ivars Peterson ( June 28, 1999 ). `` The Return of Zeta ''. MAA Online. Archived from the original on October 20, 2007. Retrieved 2008 - 03 - 14. Jump up ^ Lang, Serge ( 2002 ), Algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 211, Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 95385 - 4, MR 1878556, Section II. 1, p. 90 Jump up ^ Schubert, H. `` Die eindeutige Zerlegbarkeit eines Knotens in Primknoten ''. S. - B Heidelberger Akad. Wiss. Math. - Nat. Kl. 1949 ( 1949 ), 57 -- 104. Jump up ^ Eisenbud 1995, section 3.3. Jump up ^ Shafarevich, Basic Algebraic Geometry volume 2 ( Schemes and Complex Manifolds ), p. 5, section V. 1 Jump up ^ Neukirch, Algebraic Number theory, p. 50, Section I. 8 Jump up ^ Neukirch, Algebraic Number theory, p. 38, Section I. 7 Jump up ^ Endler, Valuation Theory, p. 1 Jump up ^ Some sources also put q p : = e − v p ( q ). ( displaystyle left q \right _ ( p ) : = e ^ ( - v_ ( p ) ( q ) ). ). Jump up ^ Gouvea : p - adic numbers : an introduction, Chapter 3, p. 43 Jump up ^ Hill, ed. 1995 Jump up ^ Carl Pomerance, Prime Numbers and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Retrieved on December 22, 2007 Jump up ^ Mark Sarvas, Book Review : The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Time Archived 2013 - 04 - 02 at the Wayback Machine., at The Modern Word Archived 2012 - 01 - 31 at the Wayback Machine., Retrieved on March 30, 2012 Jump up ^ The music of primes, Marcus du Sautoy 's selection of films featuring prime numbers. Jump up ^ `` Introducing Paolo Giordano ''. Books Quarterly. References Apostol, Thomas M. ( 1976 ), Introduction to Analytic Number Theory, New York : Springer, ISBN 0 - 387 - 90163 - 9 Conway, John Horton ; Guy, Richard K. ( 1996 ), The Book of Numbers, New York : Copernicus, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 97993 - 9 Crandall, Richard ; Pomerance, Carl ( 2005 ), Prime Numbers : A Computational Perspective ( 2nd ed. ), Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 25282 - 7 Derbyshire, John ( 2003 ), Prime obsession, Joseph Henry Press, Washington, DC, ISBN 978 - 0 - 309 - 08549 - 6, MR 1968857 Eisenbud, David ( 1995 ), Commutative algebra, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 150, Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 94268 - 1, MR 1322960 Fraleigh, John B. ( 1976 ), A First Course In Abstract Algebra ( 2nd ed. ), Reading : Addison - Wesley, ISBN 0 - 201 - 01984 - 1 Furstenberg, Harry ( 1955 ), `` On the infinitude of primes '', The American Mathematical Monthly, Mathematical Association of America, 62 ( 5 ) : 353, doi : 10.2307 / 2307043, JSTOR 2307043 Green, Ben ; Tao, Terence ( 2008 ), `` The primes contain arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions '', Annals of Mathematics, 167 ( 2 ) : 481 -- 547, arXiv : math. NT / 0404188, doi : 10.4007 / annals. 2008.167. 481 Gowers, Timothy ( 2002 ), Mathematics : A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 285361 - 5 Guy, Richard K. ( 1981 ), Unsolved Problems in Number Theory, Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 90593 - 8 Havil, Julian ( 2003 ), Gamma : Exploring Euler 's Constant, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 691 - 09983 - 5 Hardy, Godfrey Harold ( 1908 ), A Course of Pure Mathematics, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 09227 - 2 Hardy, Godfrey Harold ( 1940 ), A Mathematician 's Apology, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 42706 - 7 Herstein, I.N. ( 1964 ), Topics In Algebra, Waltham : Blaisdell Publishing Company, ISBN 978 - 1114541016 Hill, Peter Jensen, ed. ( 1995 ), The Messiaen companion, Portland, Or : Amadeus Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 931340 - 95 - 6 Hua, L.K. ( 2009 ), Additive Theory of Prime Numbers, Translations of Mathematical Monographs, 13, AMS Bookstore, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8218 - 4942 - 2 Lehmer, D.H. ( 1909 ), Factor table for the first ten millions containing the smallest factor of every number not divisible by 2, 3, 5, or 7 between the limits 0 and 10017000, Washington, D.C. : Carnegie Institution of Washington McCoy, Neal H. ( 1968 ), Introduction To Modern Algebra, Revised Edition, Boston : Allyn and Bacon, LCCN 68 - 15225 Narkiewicz, Wladyslaw ( 2000 ), The development of prime number theory : from Euclid to Hardy and Littlewood, Springer Monographs in Mathematics, Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 3 - 540 - 66289 - 1 Ribenboim, Paulo ( 2004 ), The little book of bigger primes, Berlin, New York : Springer - Verlag, ISBN 978 - 0 - 387 - 20169 - 6 Riesel, Hans ( 1994 ), Prime numbers and computer methods for factorization, Basel, Switzerland : Birkhäuser, ISBN 978 - 0 - 8176 - 3743 - 9 Sabbagh, Karl ( 2003 ), The Riemann hypothesis, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, ISBN 978 - 0 - 374 - 25007 - 2, MR 1979664 du Sautoy, Marcus ( 2003 ), The music of the primes, HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 978 - 0 - 06 - 621070 - 4, MR 2060134 External links Look up prime number in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikinews has related news : Two largest known prime numbers discovered just two weeks apart ; one qualifies for $100 k prize Record size 17.4 million - digit prime found Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prime number. Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. ( 2001 ) ( 1994 ), `` Prime number '', Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer Science + Business Media B.V. / Kluwer Academic Publishers, ISBN 978 - 1 - 55608 - 010 - 4 Caldwell, Chris, The Prime Pages at primes.utm.edu. Prime Numbers on In Our Time at the BBC. An Introduction to Analytic Number Theory, by Ilan Vardi and Cyril Banderier Plus teacher and student package : prime numbers from Plus, the free online mathematics magazine produced by the Millennium Mathematics Project at the University of Cambridge. A000040 in the OEIS Prime number generators and calculators Prime Number Checker identifies the smallest prime factor of a number. Fast Online primality test with factorization makes use of the Elliptic Curve Method ( up to thousand - digits numbers, requires Java ). Huge database of prime numbers Prime Numbers up to 1 trillion Divisibility - based sets of integers Overview Integer factorization Divisor Unitary divisor Divisor function Prime factor Fundamental theorem of arithmetic Arithmetic number Factorization forms Prime Composite Semiprime Pronic Sphenic Square - free Powerful Perfect power Achilles Smooth Regular Rough Unusual Constrained divisor sums Perfect Almost perfect Quasiperfect Multiply perfect Hemiperfect Hyperperfect Superperfect Unitary perfect Semiperfect Practical Erdős -- Nicolas With many divisors Abundant Primitive abundant Highly abundant Superabundant Colossally abundant Highly composite Superior highly composite Weird Aliquot sequence - related Untouchable Amicable Sociable Betrothed Other sets Deficient Friendly Solitary Sublime Harmonic divisor Frugal Equidigital Extravagant Prime number classes By formula Fermat ( 2 + 1 ) Mersenne ( 2 − 1 ) Double Mersenne ( 2 − 1 ) Wagstaff ( 2 + 1 ) / 3 Proth ( k 2 + 1 ) Factorial ( n ! ± 1 ) Primorial ( p # ± 1 ) Euclid ( p # + 1 ) Pythagorean ( 4n + 1 ) Pierpont ( 2 3 + 1 ) Quartan ( x + y ) Solinas ( 2 ± 2 ± 1 ) Cullen ( n 2 + 1 ) Woodall ( n 2 − 1 ) Cuban ( x − y ) / ( x − y ) Carol ( 2 − 1 ) − 2 Kynea ( 2 + 1 ) − 2 Leyland ( x + y ) Thabit ( 3 2 − 1 ) Mills ( ⌊ A ⌋ ) By integer sequence Fibonacci Lucas Pell Newman -- Shanks -- Williams Perrin Partitions Bell Motzkin By property Wieferich ( pair ) Wall -- Sun -- Sun Wolstenholme Wilson Lucky Fortunate Ramanujan Pillai Regular Strong Stern Supersingular ( elliptic curve ) Supersingular ( moonshine theory ) Good Super Higgs Highly cototient Base - dependent Happy Dihedral Palindromic Emirp Repunit ( 10 − 1 ) / 9 Permutable Circular Truncatable Strobogrammatic Minimal Weakly Full reptend Unique Primeval Self Smarandache -- Wellin Patterns Twin ( p, p + 2 ) Bi-twin chain ( n − 1, n + 1, 2n − 1, 2n + 1,... ) Triplet ( p, p + 2 or p + 4, p + 6 ) Quadruplet ( p, p + 2, p + 6, p + 8 ) k − Tuple Cousin ( p, p + 4 ) Sexy ( p, p + 6 ) Chen Sophie Germain ( p, 2p + 1 ) Cunningham chain ( p, 2p ± 1,... ) Safe ( p, ( p − 1 ) / 2 ) Arithmetic progression ( p + a n, n = 0, 1,... ) Balanced ( consecutive p − n, p, p + n ) By size Titanic ( 1,000 + digits ) Gigantic ( 10,000 + digits ) Mega ( 1,000,000 + digits ) Largest known Complex numbers Eisenstein prime Gaussian prime Composite numbers Pseudoprime Almost prime Semiprime Interprime Related topics Probable prime Industrial - grade prime Illegal prime Formula for primes Prime gap First 50 primes 5 7 11 13 17 19 23 29 31 37 41 43 47 53 59 61 67 71 73 79 83 89 97 101 103 107 109 113 127 131 137 139 149 151 157 163 167 173 179 181 191 193 197 199 211 223 227 229 List of prime numbers LCCN : sh85093218 GND : 4047263 - 2 NDL : 00571462 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Prime_number&oldid=813096091 '' Categories : Prime numbers Integer sequences Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from May 2011 Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism Articles containing potentially dated statements from January 2016 All articles containing potentially dated statements All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015 Wikipedia articles needing clarification from June 2011 Articles containing potentially dated statements from February 2011 Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from June 2014 Commons category with page title different than on Wikidata Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Articles containing proofs Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Wikibooks Wikinews Afrikaans Alemannisch Ænglisc Aragonés অসমীয়া Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Føroyskt Français Gaeilge Galego 贛 語 ગુજરાતી Хальмг 한국어 Hawaiʻi Հայերեն हिन्दी Hornjoserbsce Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ಕನ್ನಡ ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Kreyòl ayisyen Kurdî Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Limburgs La. lojban. 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Question: why is 1 not the smallest prime number
Answer: because one can include arbitrarily many instances of 1 in any factorization, e.g., 3, 1 · 3, 1 · 1 · 3, etc. are all valid factorizations of 3