Question? What are Prime Numbers? Who Cares? They don’t affect me! The problem is they do affect everyone; the bigger problem is 99.99% of people don’t realize it. Are Prime Numbers random? What are they used for? Prime Numbers set the scene for pretty well everything which happens on the WEB – wow didn’t realize — that is big! Yes, Prime Numbers are those most fundamental, primordial numbers from which every other number is generated. That’s why Prime Numbers are used to SECURE the web and all those transactions, banking, buying, we make everyday, but all may be about to change with a new development in Prime Number Theory.
The classic definition of a Prime Number is a number which is only divisible by itself and one. For instance take 5, 7, 11, 13 … these have no divisors other than themselves and one. However, take 24, this can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12, 24. Being divisible means that a number can be broken down quickly into component parts. The mathematics surrounding Prime Numbers is very fascinating, well worth investigating more if you’re a little that way inclined. They are used in such things as the RSA Algorithm which is one of the formula used to encrypt and secure data flow on the Web.
Is there a point at which we have all the Prime Numbers we ever need in order to generate every other number? Simple answer no. It has been shown that they get far more rare as numbers get bigger, but there are an infinite quantity of them. Others have shown that the decrease approximately follows a Natural.Log(X) curve.
Because they become quite rare for very large values they become in a sense “hidden” among all the other numbers, which are generated by preceding Prime Numbers. Let’s make that sound a little less complicated; first how can we determine that a number is Prime or not? Well in simple terms we can take a new value “X” and try dividing it by every other number preceding it. For instance take a tiny value like 6783 is this prime or not? We can try dividing by 6782, then 6781, and keep reducing by one all the way down to one. In fact we will find that it is divisible by 1, 3, 7, 17, 19, 21, 51, 57, 119, 133, 323, 357, 399, 969, 2231, 6783; these are what are termed FACTORS. Now move down by 2 and try 6781; we can start at 6781 and decrement down to 1 in steps of one and find no divisors other than 1 and 6781; this is a Prime Number. Of course mathematicians don’t start at 6783 and decrement by one, we can logically forget all even numbers, and we can start at the square root of 6783, and there are a lot of other tricks to reduce the effort. Even so it can be a lot of work to determine if a number is Prime or not, but all that is another story.
So Prime Numbers are quite scarce for large values of X, and they appear to be RANDOM. It is precisely this randomness and scarcity and infinite quantity and inability to break them into smaller factors which make them useful for generating a sort of lock and key on the data flow for our transactions across the Web.
BUT – I’ve heard from a reliable source that someone has demonstrated that Prime Numbers are NOT Random. In fact if my source is correct then an actual EQUATION linking all Prime Numbers from 5 to infinity has been determined. The source says that the two Prime Numbers 2 and 3 {interestingly 2 is the only EVEN Prime Number} have been demonstrated to be of a completely different type of Prime Number and I have been given to understand that these have been labelled “sub-Primes“ since they lie below the real start at “5”. I hope to get some more info, but the people I’m dealing with are a bit cagey.
Of course IF an EQUATION has been developed for the Prime Number Series then security on the Net, in fact possibly all security of everything, may be at an end. Now who cares? What might this do to our modern world? How about business and Finance? Watch this space!
