What is a prime number -describe and use an example please.

Rather than doing your homework for you, Try this. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_numbers)

a prime number is an integer greater than 1 that has no positive inegral factor other than itself and 1. OK, the first 10 prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29.

I got that out of my book... haha

basically, a prime number is a number that can't be multiplied by anything but 1 and itself.

EXAMPLE:
2 is a prime number... 1X2=2... what else can be multiplied together to get 2? Nothing.
Same with 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29... and so on...

what else can be multiplied together to get 2?

0.5 and 4 :D

basically, a prime number is a number that can't be multiplied by anything but 1 and itself.



I think you mean divisors. You can multiply prime numbers with whatever you want. But prime number can only be DIVIDED by 1 and themselves. Such as 2, you cannot divide anything into 2 except 1 or 2 making it a prime number. But for example 6 can be divided by 1,2,3,6 so it is not a prime number.

INTEGERS, cannot be the product of two INTEGERS except one and itself.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_number (which has much more additional info)

"A prime number ... is a natural number that has exactly two (distinct) natural number divisors. It follows that these two divisors are 1 and the prime number itself."

So a prime is a natural number, not an integer, and it must have exactly 2 natural number divisors (1 and itself).

A natural number is different than an integer in that the natural numbers are the set of integers > than zero.
(>= 0 in some definitions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_number)

A divisor of an integer n, also called a factor of n, is an integer which evenly divides n without leaving a remainder.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisor)

Hope this mass of data and nitpicking helps someone! :)