Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Factorial prime

Encyclopedia : F : FA : FAC : Factorial prime


A factorial prime is a number that is one less or one more than a factorial and is also a prime number. The first few factorial primes are:

2, 3, 5, 7, 23, 719, 5039, 39916801, 479001599, 87178291199, ... (sequence in OEIS)
Factorial primes are of interest to number theorists because their absence sometimes signals the end or the beginning of a lengthy run of consecutive composite numbers. For example, the prime following 6227020777 is 6227020867.

Factorial primes have a role in the argument that 1 is not a prime number.

If n is a natural number and p is a prime number, n! + p is never a prime for p < n, because obviously it will be a multiple of p, just as n! is. But n! + 1, even though it certainly is a multiple of 1, can be a prime, specifically, a factorial prime. (The same is also true for n! - p and n! - 1).

External links

 


From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: