The magic of Primes
We all know what a prime number is. It is a number that is divisible only by 1 and itself. But do you know how fascinating these numbers are?
You could call them the building block of all numbers.
Why do I say that?
We all know numbers that are not prime numbers are called composite numbers. But you may not know that all composite numbers can be built from prime numbers in a unique way by multiplication. In fact, this fact is called the “Fundamental Theorem of Mathematics” – that any number can be written as a factor of two or more primes in a unique way (by unique I mean there is only one way to write it as a factor of primes).
For example, take 96. If you factor it in primes, you will get 96 = 2 * 48 = 2 * 2 * 24 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 12 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 6 = 2 * 2 * 2 *2 * 2 * 3
So 96 can be represented as 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3. There is no other way to factorize it using primes.
And this is true for all prime numbers. Isn’t it fascinating?
There are many fascinating things about prime numbers and their role as the building block for all numbers.
But let me tell you about one strange fact – there is no largest prime number. It is just not possible to have something called the “largest prime number”. A Greek Mathematician called Euclid proved it more than 2000 years ago.
There is an active search going on for finding larger and larger prime numbers. The largest one found so far is 243,112,609 − 1. What is that? It is 2 multiplied by itself 43 million, one lakh, twelve thousand, six hundred and nine times, and one subtracted from that number. That number is 12 million digits long.
How big is that? Let me tell you – If you could write 80 numbers in a line, and your notebook page had 40 lines, and your notebook had 50 pages, it would take you 80 notebooks to write down this number. Of course, the search for still larger prime numbers continues.
We all know what a prime number is. It is a number that is divisible only by 1 and itself. But do you know how fascinating these numbers are?
You could call them the building block of all numbers.
You could call them the building block of all numbers.
Why do I say that?
We all know numbers that are not prime numbers are called composite numbers. But you may not know that all composite numbers can be built from prime numbers in a unique way by multiplication. In fact, this fact is called the “Fundamental Theorem of Mathematics” – that any number can be written as a factor of two or more primes in a unique way (by unique I mean there is only one way to write it as a factor of primes).
We all know numbers that are not prime numbers are called composite numbers. But you may not know that all composite numbers can be built from prime numbers in a unique way by multiplication. In fact, this fact is called the “Fundamental Theorem of Mathematics” – that any number can be written as a factor of two or more primes in a unique way (by unique I mean there is only one way to write it as a factor of primes).
For example, take 96. If you factor it in primes, you will get 96 = 2 * 48 = 2 * 2 * 24 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 12 = 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 6 = 2 * 2 * 2 *2 * 2 * 3
So 96 can be represented as 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 3. There is no other way to factorize it using primes.
And this is true for all prime numbers. Isn’t it fascinating?
And this is true for all prime numbers. Isn’t it fascinating?
There are many fascinating things about prime numbers and their role as the building block for all numbers.
But let me tell you about one strange fact – there is no largest prime number. It is just not possible to have something called the “largest prime number”. A Greek Mathematician called Euclid proved it more than 2000 years ago.
But let me tell you about one strange fact – there is no largest prime number. It is just not possible to have something called the “largest prime number”. A Greek Mathematician called Euclid proved it more than 2000 years ago.
There is an active search going on for finding larger and larger prime numbers. The largest one found so far is 243,112,609 − 1. What is that? It is 2 multiplied by itself 43 million, one lakh, twelve thousand, six hundred and nine times, and one subtracted from that number. That number is 12 million digits long.
How big is that? Let me tell you – If you could write 80 numbers in a line, and your notebook page had 40 lines, and your notebook had 50 pages, it would take you 80 notebooks to write down this number. Of course, the search for still larger prime numbers continues.
How big is that? Let me tell you – If you could write 80 numbers in a line, and your notebook page had 40 lines, and your notebook had 50 pages, it would take you 80 notebooks to write down this number. Of course, the search for still larger prime numbers continues.
Mathematics – Opening Children’s mind to a beautiful subject
We often see that children are scared of mathematics. This manifests itself as a reluctance to understand the subject, and ultimately in them pushing the subject aside.
However, we believe that we at EduGain can help them in overcoming this fear and to excel in a beautiful subject that can grow their minds and expand their horizons.
The truth is that Mathematics is a fascinating and unique subject. This is the sense that we need to instil in them.
Mathematics is unique in the sense that all other areas we study came from our curiosity about the universe around us. We looked up at the night sky, and from our curiosity about what we saw, came up with astronomy and physics. We looked at the proliferation of life around us, and developed the science of biology. And so on.
But mathematics is something that originated in the human mind. It is true that the start of mathematics came from daily activities, where we distilled the concepts of numbers and counting, but soon it surpassed those humble origins and became something we create from our minds – pure abstract thought. No wonder it is often called “The queen of the sciences”.
The reason why some children fear it is that it is projected in our education system as a very difficult area. However, this is not really true. We’ll go into the specifics of these in later articles, but one thing that really helps is practise. It’s true in all areas of human endeavour, but especially true for mathematics. Continous practise with various types of questions helps crystallize the concepts and that is when the fear of the subject goes away.
Sites like EduGain aim to aid the students in this aspect – by generating questions using an advanced engine, students get exposed to a variety of questions in all areas that helps them understand the concept thoroughly and overcome their fears of this beautiful subject.
We often see that children are scared of mathematics. This manifests itself as a reluctance to understand the subject, and ultimately in them pushing the subject aside.
However, we believe that we at EduGain can help them in overcoming this fear and to excel in a beautiful subject that can grow their minds and expand their horizons.
The truth is that Mathematics is a fascinating and unique subject. This is the sense that we need to instil in them.
Mathematics is unique in the sense that all other areas we study came from our curiosity about the universe around us. We looked up at the night sky, and from our curiosity about what we saw, came up with astronomy and physics. We looked at the proliferation of life around us, and developed the science of biology. And so on.
But mathematics is something that originated in the human mind. It is true that the start of mathematics came from daily activities, where we distilled the concepts of numbers and counting, but soon it surpassed those humble origins and became something we create from our minds – pure abstract thought. No wonder it is often called “The queen of the sciences”.
The reason why some children fear it is that it is projected in our education system as a very difficult area. However, this is not really true. We’ll go into the specifics of these in later articles, but one thing that really helps is practise. It’s true in all areas of human endeavour, but especially true for mathematics. Continous practise with various types of questions helps crystallize the concepts and that is when the fear of the subject goes away.
Sites like EduGain aim to aid the students in this aspect – by generating questions using an advanced engine, students get exposed to a variety of questions in all areas that helps them understand the concept thoroughly and overcome their fears of this beautiful subject.
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