Prime Numbers Explained

What Makes a Number Prime?

A prime number has exactly two factors: 1 and itself. 2 is the only even prime. 1 is not prime (by definition, it has only one factor). The first ten primes are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29.

Prime Factorisation

Every integer greater than 1 is either prime or can be expressed as a unique product of primes (Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic). 84 = 2² × 3 × 7. This unique factorisation is the basis of the HCF and LCM methods.

Why Primes Matter

Modern internet security (RSA encryption) depends on the difficulty of factoring large numbers into primes. A public key uses two large primes multiplied together — finding those primes from the product takes longer than the age of the universe for sufficiently large numbers.

Prime Number Checker

Results update automatically as you type

Enter values above to calculate