Odd, Even and Prime - II: Key Concepts Discussed
Odd, Even and Prime - II: Key Concepts Discussed
Numbers is one of the most important topics for CAT and other management entrance exams, questions
from which have appeared consistently and in significant numbers in all these exams.
All the natural numbers which are multiples of 2 are even numbers. Even numbers are resented as
2n, where n is a natural number.
All the natural numbers which are not multiple of 2 are odd numbers. Odd numbers are represented
as 2n 1, where n is a natural number.
Facts about even and odd numbers:
odd odd = even
odd even = odd
even even = even
odd odd = odd
odd even = even
even even = even
All the natural numbers, which have exactly two distinct factors i.e. 1 and number itself, are prime
numbers.
There are 25 prime numbers from 1 to 100 and 21 from 101 to 200.
2 is the only prime number which is even.
Every prime number greater than 3 can be represented as either 6n 1 or 6n + 1, where n is a
natural number, but the converse is not true (i.e. every number of the above mentioned forms is not
a prime number.)
Prime numbers are the building blocks of composite numbers i.e. every composite number is a
product of two or more identical or distinct prime numbers.
A natural number is a prime if it is not divisible by any prime number which is less than or equal to
the square root of the number.
Highlight: Though the session deals with questions which are based on the definitions of numbers, a few
questions are tricky in nature. The session demonstrates that just mere understanding of definitions would
not be adequate to handle tricky questions unless other concepts pertinent to the topic are applied adeptly.
Session
Numbers
The questions discussed in the session are given below along with their source.
Q1.
A positive integer is said to be a prime number if it is not divisible by any positive integer other than
itself and 1. Let p be a prime number greater than 5. Then (p2 1) is
(a) never divisible by 6
(b) always divisible by 6, and may or may not be divisible by 12.
(c) always divisible by 12, and may or may not be divisible by 24.
(d) always divisible by 24.
(CAT 1991)
Q2.
If a, a + 2 and a + 4 are prime numbers, then the number of possible solutions for a is
(a) one
(b) two
(c) three
(d) more than three
(CAT 2003 (R))
DIRECTION for Question 3: The question is followed by two statements, I and II.
Mark (a), if the question can be answered with the help of statement I alone,
Mark (b), if the question can be answered with the help of statement II alone,
Mark (c), if both the statement I and statement II are needed to answer the question, and
Mark (d), if the question cannot be answered even with the help of both the statements.
Q3.
(CAT 1991)
DIRECTIONS for Question 4: The questions is followed by two statements, I and II. Mark the answer as:
(a)
if the question cannot be answered even with the help of both the statements taken together.
(b)
if the question can be answered by any one of the two statements.
(c)
if each statement alone is sufficient to answer the question, but not the other one (e.g. statement I
alone is required to answer the question, but not statement II and vice versa).
(d)
if both statements I and II together are needed to answer the question.
Q4.
Q5.
Q6.
(CAT 1996)
(x + y)
x
The number of order triplets (x, y, z) such that x, y, z are primes and xy + 1 = z is
(a) 0
(b) 1
(c) 2
(d) infinitely many
(JMET 2007)
Numbers
Session