So like I said in the previous section, when one thinks about a prime number in the simplest of terms, they don't sound all that hard to master. Sounds like there should be some easy curve that prime numbers fit on, a curve that shouldn't be too easy to find, but with all the great minds working on the problem today, shouldn't be too hard either. Well, it isn't that easy dear reader. You see the problem isn't finding whether small numbers are prime or not, numbers like 3021377 aren't all that hard to test the primality of, it is those large numbers like 23021377 - 1, that prove somewhat more challenging. That number having 909526 digits. So simply put, the problem with prime numbers is as follows:
- Finding an efficient way to decide whether a number is prime or not
- Finding an efficient way to determine the prime number factors of any given number.
