How can you quickly determine if a number is prime or composite?

I can quickly determine that any even number larger than 2 is composite, and any odd number larger than 5 which ends with 5 is also composite.

That leaves numbers ending with 1,3,7,9. Is there a quick way to determine odd numbers ending with one of those especially, when you get past 100.
So it seems the short answer is: find a chart of prime numbers.

Look for a chart on the Internet. I found one chart up to 10,000 without breaking a sweat.

http://www.google.com/search?q=prime+number+chart&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

If there were an easy formula, people wouldn’t be spending centuries trying to find new primes.

This entry was posted in composite. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to How can you quickly determine if a number is prime or composite?

  1. Eric says:

    Look for a chart on the Internet. I found one chart up to 10,000 without breaking a sweat.

    http://www.google.com/search?q=prime+number+chart&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

    If there were an easy formula, people wouldn’t be spending centuries trying to find new primes.
    References :