Probable Prime Predicaments

Abstract

This article focuses on the concept of primality, a topic which extends from the dawn of history to the present. It likewise foreshadows some of the challenges confronting the mathematical world of the twenty-first century. Various tests of primality are often cumbersome or difficult to apply - including the Sieve of Eratosthenes and Wilson's Theorem. Other tests are typified by Fermat's Little Theorem. The notion of repunit numbers extends this pursuit and leads to the intriguing area of fraudulent primes. It likewise provides an interesting classroom activity in which converses and the expressing of necessary and sufficient conditions are analyzed.