Is 57 a prime number? There’s a game for that.
Is 57 a prime number? There’s a game for that.
Is 57 a prime number? There’s a game for that.
By Siobhan Roberts
July 18, 2021
Summary
The Greek mathematician Euclid may very well have proved, circa 300 BCE, that there are infinitely many prime numbers.
The aim of the game is to sort as many numbers as possible into "Prime" or "Not prime" in 60 seconds.
A prime number is a whole number with precisely two divisors, 1 and itself.
Prime numbers have practical utility in computing-such as with error-correcting codes and encryption.
The most minimalistic algorithm for checking a number's primeness is trial division-divide the number by every number up to its square root.
"There is a chance of uncovering an imposter, a composite number that is trying to pass as prime," says Carl Pomerance, a mathematician at Dartmouth College and coauthor of the book Prime Numbers: A Computational Perspective.
Notably, 19 years ago, three computer scientists-Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena, all at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur-announced the AKS primality test, which finally provided a test for unequivocally proving that a number is prime, with no randomization and with impressive speed..
Reference
Roberts, S. (2021, July 18). Is 57 a prime number? there's a game for that. Retrieved October 04, 2021, from https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/07/18/1029440/prime-number-game/