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Chapter 4
Prime Numbers
Prime numbers, dened as natural numbers (also called counting num-
bers), divisible by themselves and 1 only, have long enjoyed a special place
of mystery for both advanced mathematicians and school children alike.
e smallest prime number is 2, and it is the only even prime number. For
it seems that the moment, as a civilization, we could perform the arithme-
tic operation of division, the primes have presented themselves as special,
and to this day, many questions of primes are yet to be answered.
For instance, can we consider the primes “building blocks” of the
natural numbers (as Jon Keating, professor of mathema