What is a Prime Number?

If you want to find out what the first 5 prime numbers are and why, then take a look at our First 5 Prime Numbers page.

Our prime number calculator will help you to find all the factors of any given number and tell you whether or not the number you are looking at is prime or not.

The calculator will also show you your number as a product of primes.

11 is prime because its only factors are 1 and 11.

17 is prime because its only factors are 1 and 17.

53 is prime because its only factors are 1 and 53.

15 is NOT prime because it has 4 factors: 1, 3, 5 and 15. So 15 is composite.

28 is NOT prime because it has 6 factors: 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28. So 28 is composite.

On our Prime Number Charts page, we have many printable lists of prime numbers.

You can find the first 100 prime numbers, or print out a list of all prime numbers below 10,000.

We also have a prime number calculator which will find all the primes in a range that you set, and also a prime number tester which gives all the factors of a number, and tells you whether it is prime or not.

The simple answer to this question is no.

Prime numbers have many different and interesting properties, which they would not have if the number one was prime.

Therefore, the number 1 was excluded from the set of prime numbers.

So the first prime number is 2.

The answer to this question is no.

All prime numbers belong to the set of natural numbers or positive integers.

The answer to this question is again no.

All prime numbers belong to the set of natural numbers or positive integers.

They cannot be decimals or fractions.

The answer to this question is yes.

However, there is only one even prime number which is 2.

No other even numbers can be prime as they will have 2 as a factor (as well as themselves and one).

What this shows is that as the range of numbers gets large, the density of prime numbers gets smaller.

So the prime numbers become more spread out as the numbers get larger.

So the next question I'm betting you want to know is: "If the prime numbers become more spread out as the numbers get larger and larger, do they eventually stop?"

Well, the answer is no.

The set of prime numbers is infinite and there are several different proofs to demonstrate this!

One such proof is given here on the primes.utm.edu website.

The Sieve of Erastosthenes is a method for finding what is a prime numbers between 2 and any given number.

Eratosthenes was a Greek mathematician (as well as being a poet, an astronomer and musician) who lived from about 276BC to 194BC.

If you want to find out more about his sieve for finding primes, and print out some Sieve of Eratosthenes worksheets, use the link below.

To find out more about prime factorization, including how it works and to look at some worked examples, take a look at our prime factorization support page.

We have a collection of factor tree and prime factorization worksheets for students aged 6th grade and upwards.

Using factor trees is a great visual way of finding all the prime factors of a number.

We also have some problem solving, riddles and challenges on our Prime Factorization Worksheets page.

If you are looking for some printable divisibility charts to help you learn you rules, then try our range here.

The Math Salamanders hope you enjoy using these free printable Math worksheets and all our other Math games and resources.

We welcome any comments about our site or worksheets on the Facebook comments box at the bottom of every page.