When we withdraw money or use a computer to communicate in a private way the communication between us and the computer is encrypted.
Prime numbers are often seen as the primary building blocks by mathematicians as a fundamental theorem of arithmetic states that a composite number ( A whole number that can be written as the product of two smaller numbers) can be expressed as the product of prime numbers. not a whole number).Ĩ is not an example of a prime number because it can be divided by 4 and 2 as well as by itself and 1, 8 is therefore an example of a composite number because it has more than two factors. 5 ÷ 2 = 2 remainder 1 (or 2.5, or two and a half, i.e. Dividing a prime number by another natural number results in a remainder e.g. a prime number cannot be divided by any other positive integer without leaving a remainder, a decimal or a fraction.Īnother prime number definition is that it is a positive integer that has only exactly two distinct divisors (which is one, and itself) and therefore since the divisors of 2 are 1 and 2, there are exactly two distinct divisors (which is one and itself), so 2 is prime.Īn example of a prime number is 5.
In mathematical terms a prime number is a whole number greater than 1 with only two factors themselves and 1 i.e.
