Understanding Primes
Primes are natural numbers greater than 1 that are not products of two smaller natural numbers. For instance, 2, 3, 5, and 7 are all primes. Their simplicity and fundamental nature make them a cornerstone of number theory and various areas of mathematics.
Want to dive deeper? Here's a comprehensive introduction.
Prime Number Facts
- The first prime number is 2, which is also the only even prime.
- Primes are infinite; they never run out! This was proven by Euclid around 300 BC.
- The largest known prime number as of 2023 is a Mersenne prime, which has over 24 million digits! 😲