A prime number is a whole number, greater than 1, that only has two factors. A factor is a number that divides another number evenly, with no remainder or decimal. The factors of a prime number are ...

It's videos like this one from YouTube user Numberphile that make us mortals realize why mathematicians view math as art, or perhaps as power. Highly composite numbers—numbers that have more divisible ...

Prime numbers are quite extraordinary. They're like "special snowflakes" - unique in the way that they don't have any other positive divisors other than the number 1 and the prime number itself.

The study of prime numbers has long been a central part of number theory, a field traditionally pursued for its own sake and for the mathematical beauty of its results. The number theorist Don Zagier ...

Prime numbers are beautiful and fascinating – and an infuriating puzzle. Easy to define, yet rowdy and disordered, the primes have no evident pattern. The more of them you list, the more erratic they ...

The online computer game “Is this prime?” tests a player’s knowledge of prime numbers—and just surpassed 2,999,999 attempts. Give it a whirl. The Greek mathematician Euclid may very well have proved, ...

Computing prime factors may sound like an elementary math problem, but try it with a large number, say one that contains more than 600 digits, and the task becomes enormously challenging and ...

Despite finding no specific examples, researchers have proved the existence of a pervasive kind of prime number so delicate that changing any of its infinite digits renders it composite. Take a look ...