Prime Survey 2024

Prime numbers are a sub-set of the natural numbers.

The natural numbers are the 'counting numbers':

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ,11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20...

Prime numbers are the ones that cannot be divided evenly by any number other than the number 1 or it's own self:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ,11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20...

See?

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61...

No matter how large a prime number is, there is always another prime number larger than that one.

We have no way of predicting what will be the next prime number, and because of this, prime numbers remain unknown to Man. They simply cannot be predicted. There is no formula to describe all prime numbers.

We can test whether a number is prime. The methods for doing this are well known. However, we cannot predict what the next prime number will be.

In todays modern technological world, this creates many difficulties. How can data ever truly be secured when all cryptography relies on something so completely unknowable?

Truly this is a mystery and 'unseen'.