Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Every time you buy something with a credit card, you can thank Prime numbers for keeping your credit information from prying eyes. Prime numbers are those which can only be divided by one, or by themselves. Two, three, five and seven are good examples. Composite numbers, on the other hand, can be divided by quite a few other whole numbers.
Twelve is a good example.
It can be divided by 1,2,3,4,6 and, of course, 12. There are other numbers which are interesting for other than mathematical reasons. When Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's baseball home run record, University of Georgia math professor Carl Pomerance noticed that multiplying 714 times 715 yielded the same answer as multiplying the first seven Prime numbers. Not only that, but 714's divisors added to each other equal 715's divisors. There are, indeed, deep connections in the way numbers interact with each other, as well as with nature.