Probable Prime
In number theory, a probable prime (PRP) is an integer that satisfies a specific condition also satisfied by all prime numbers. Different types of probable primes have different specific conditions. While there may be probable primes that are composite (called pseudoprimes), the condition is generally chosen in order to make such exceptions rare.
Fermat's test for compositeness, which is based on Fermat's little theorem, works as follows: given an integer n, choose some integer a coprime to n and calculate an − 1 modulo n. If the result is different from 1, n is composite. If it is 1, n may or may not be prime; n is then called a (weak) probable prime to base a.
Read more about Probable Prime: Properties, Variations
Famous quotes containing the words probable and/or prime:
“It was only too probable that among the half-converted Pagans and Jews, any rite, any form, would find favor, whilst yet unable to comprehend the spiritual character of Christianity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If one had to worry about one’s actions in respect of other people’s ideas, one might as well be buried alive in an antheap or married to an ambitious violinist. Whether that man is the prime minister, modifying his opinions to catch votes, or a bourgeois in terror lest some harmless act should be misunderstood and outrage some petty convention, that man is an inferior man and I do not want to have anything to do with him any more than I want to eat canned salmon.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)