Prime numbers, vital in mathematics and competitive exams, can be quickly identified using a systematic approach. This method ...

Ken Ono, a top mathematician and advisor at the University of Virginia, has helped uncover a striking new way to find prime numbers—those puzzling building blocks of arithmetic that have kept ...

A fragment of the Rhind papyrus, which shows the knowledge about prime numbers in ancient Egypt. Credit: The Trustees of the British Museum For example, the number 4 has five partitions: 4, 3 + 1, 2 + ...

Prime numbers are crucial for tech like RSA encryption, so understanding them from every angle is essential for maximum ...

Using a notion called integer partitions, mathematicians have discovered a new way to detect prime numbers while also ...

For example, 11 is a prime number since 11 dots form only rectangular arrays of sizes 1 by 11 and 11 by 1. Conversely, 12 is not prime since you can use 12 dots to make an array of 3 by 4 dots ...

They realized they could solve a slightly weaker version of their problem—one where the numbers getting squared only had to be “roughly” prime. Rough primes are much easier to find than primes.

A new proof has brought mathematicians one step closer to understanding the hidden order of those “atoms of arithmetic,” the prime numbers. The primes — numbers that are only divisible by themselves ...

For example, six is a perfect number because 6 = 2 × 3 = 1 + 2 + 3. Likewise, 28 = 4 × 7 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14. For every Mersenne prime, there is also an even perfect number. (In one of the oldest ...

Another way to write this number is 2 136,279,841 – 1. There are a few special things about it. First, it’s a prime number (meaning it is only divisible by itself and one). Second, it’s what is called ...