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BasicMathSkills AddSubtractDecimals InverseOperations
ComplementarySupplementary MultiplyDecimals NumberProperties
item8 Exponents OrderofOperations-GEMA1
VerticalAngles FactorTrees item3
AreaofPolygons Fractions ProportionsRatios
AreaofParallelogram AddSubtractFractions Quadrilaterals1
AreaofRectangle multiplyfractions RationalNumbers
AreaofSquare dividefractions SieveofEratosthenes
AreaofTrapezoid lowesttermsfractions
AreaofTriangle mixednumbers
Homework1
BezierCurves
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CirclesandPi Integers ClassNews
Circumference AddSubtractIntegers item24
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sieve
The Sieve of Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes was a Greek scholar from Cyrene (current-day Libya) who was famous for a number of contributions in not just mathematics. He was a geographer, poet, astronomer, and even an athlete! Eratosthenes was appointed as a librarian of the famed librarian of Alexandria and he was a friend to Archimedes. He is the one who gave us the term 'geograph,' which is the descriptive study of the Earth. Many of his contributions are still widely used today (latitude and longitude, for example), yet, most people have never even heard of him. He was the first Greek to calculate the circumference of the Earth (and was only off by mere miles) as well as the tilt of the Earth's axis. He had a nickname—Beta—which is the second letter of the Greek alphabet—because he supposedly proved himself to be the second best in almost any field. Wow, what a guy!

One of Eratosthenes' contributions in mathematics was in number theory; specifically in prime numbers through what is known as his sieve.

A sieve is a strainer of sorts and what Eratosthenes did was come up with a method for straining out the composite numbers in such a way that all that remained was the primes.

A prime number is a number that has only two distinct positive factors: 1 and itself. For example, 11 is a prime because its factors are 1 and 11.
 
A composite number has positive factors in addition to 1 and itself. So, 8 is a composite number because its factors are 1, 2, 4, and 8.
 
The number 1 is neither prime nor composite because it has only ONE factor.

Someone made up a short mnemonic rhyme to go with the making of the Sieve of Eratosthenes (although it isn't quite correct!). It goes like this:

Sift the twos and sift the threes

The Sieve of Eratosthenes

When the multiples sublime

The numbers that remain are prime.

*The problem with the rhyme? When making the sieve you have to sift not only the two and threes but also the fives and sevens as well! Oh well…close…

So, let's get started.

Make Your Own Sieve of

You will need green, red, blue, orange, and black colored pencils. Download the Sieve of Eratosthenes page.

sieveoferatosthenes1

Step 1: Multiples of 2

Begin by carefully coloring all of the multiples of 2 using the green pencil.

Step 2: Multiples of 3

Now, take the red pencil and go and color in the multiples of 3. If a number has already been colored in, you can draw a circle around the number and color it in.

Step 3: Multiples of 5

Use the blue pencil to color in all multiples of 5.

Step 4: Multiples of 7

For the multiples of 7, be careful! Use your orange colored pencil…

Step 5: Prime Numbers

When finished, go back and take the black pencil and circle the remaining numbers, including the 2, 3, 5, & 7.

Voila! You now have all of the prime numbers, circled in black, from 1 to 100!

Question: Is 1 a prime number? How many factors does it have? Think about it…

©2009–2016 Sherry Skipper Spurgeon.

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