Composite number

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A composite number (or simply composite) is a natural number, that can be gotten by multiplying prime numbers. For example, the number 9 can be gotten by multiplying 3 with 3. Take the number 12. You get it by multiplying 3 with 2 with 2.

All natural numbers (greater than 1) can be put in one of the two classes below:

  • The number is prime.
  • The number is not prime. It can be gotten by multiplying a certain number of primes. The same prime might be used several times, as in the example above. This is known as Fundamental theorem of arithmetic.

[edit] See also