Wednesday, 29 October 2025

Exercise (2.2).8

Test the following numbers for compositeness. If they are composite, write down their prime decomposition:

(a) 161

(b) 203

(c) 1003

(d) 1009


We use Corollary (2.10). 

If $n > 1$ is composite then it has a prime divisor $p$ such that $p ≤ ⌊√n⌋$.


(a) $\lfloor \sqrt(161) \rfloor = 12$, so we only need to test prime factors less than or equal to 12, that is $2,3,5,7,11$. This gives us

$ 161 = 7 \times 23$


(b) $\lfloor \sqrt(203) \rfloor = 14$, so we only need to test prime factors less than or equal to 14. This gives us

$ 203 = 7 \times 29 $


(c) $\lfloor \sqrt(1003) \rfloor = 31$, so we only need to test prime factors less than or equal to 31. This gives us

$ 1003 = 17 \times 59 $


(c) $\lfloor \sqrt(1009) \rfloor = 31$, so we only need to test prime factors less than or equal to 31.

There are no factors, and so 1009 is prime.