Questions tagged [prime-numbers]
The prime-numbers tag has no usage guidance.
6
questions
-4
votes
2
answers
325
views
Missing Step in Most Proofs of the Irrationality of $\sqrt{2}$ [closed]
Numerous online resources parrot the usual proof by contradiction of the irrationality of $\sqrt{2}$. These all rely upon the assumption that the rational form (say, $a/b$) is in its simplest ...
22
votes
15
answers
7k
views
Explaining why (or whether) zero and one are prime, composite or neither to younger children
There are lots of discussions out there about whether $1$ is a prime number (such as this one) and even about zero (such as this question, though note zero does generate a prime ideal in $\mathbb{Z}$ ...
10
votes
3
answers
321
views
Planning high school workshop on Goldbach Conjecture
So I'm doing a mathematics education extension for my current undergraduate maths course, and for one bit of the final assessment we're asked to create a detailed lesson plan on the (strong) Goldbach ...
9
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Student Project about Prime Numbers: How to Continue?
I know a talented, enthusiastic, and very very hard-wroking 7th grade student, who began working on a research project about prime numbers a month ago.
He has written numerous Pascal programs to ...
24
votes
7
answers
3k
views
A Non-Unique Factorization of Integers!
I'm going to introduce my students to the fundamental theorem of arithmetic (uniqueness of integer factorization to prime factors), and I don't want them to take the uniqueness for granted! To make my ...
11
votes
4
answers
795
views
How to arrive at infinitude of primes proof?
I know Euclid's proof of there being infinite number of primes. I want to let my brother (age 15) arrive at that proof by himself. He knows definition of a prime number (number divisible only by 1 and ...