arXiv:math.

HO/0507401 v1 19 Jul 2005

A most easy method for finding many very

large prime numbers
Leonhard Euler

1. It will suffice to explain this method by one example, of numbers

contained in the form 232aa + 1, for which I will investigate all values for a
such that this form produces composite numbers; all the numbers taken for
a remaining from those excluded will then supply prime numbers.
2. Yet if the form 232aa + 1 provides a composite number, then such an
equation will have a place:
232aa + 1 = 232xx + yy,
because 232 = 8 29 is an idoneal number. Therefore it will be as such:
232(aa xx) = yy 1.
Now it is put y = 1 + 58z, and dividing the equation by 232 produces this
equation: aa xx = 21 (29z + 1), or, because the unity may be taken as
positive or negative, it will be
1
aa xx = z(29z 1).
2

Delivered to the St.Petersburg Academy March 16, 1778. Originally published

as Facillima methodus plurimos numeros primos praemagnos inveniendi, Nova Acta
Academiae Scientarum Imperialis Petropolitinae 14 (1805), 310, and republished in
Leonhard Euler, Opera Omnia, Series 1: Opera mathematica, Volume 4, Birkhauser,
1992. A copy of the original text is available electronically at the Euler Archive, at
http://www.eulerarchive.org. This paper is E718 in the Enestrom index.

Date of translation: July 19, 2005. Translated from the Latin by Jordan Bell, 3rd year
undergraduate in Honours Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton
University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Email: jbell3@connect.carleton.ca. This translation
was written during an NSERC USRA supervised by Dr. B. Stevens.

3. Now for z itself are taken in turn all the values 1, 2, 3, etc., and, because
the form 21 z(29z 1) certainly involves two factors, and often more, it will be
able to be represented in one or more ways by a product rs; for seeing that
the formula aa xx = (a + x)(a x) must be equal, it is set that a + x = r
and a x = s, from which it would be a = r+s
, and in this way the values
2
for a which are to be excluded will be discovered. It is therefore evident here
that both of the factors r and s ought to be simultaneously even or odd.
4. With this having been noted we take z = 1, and it will be twofold,
from the equivocation of the sign, either rs = 14 or rs = 15. From the first
value, as it is odd, for our arrangement it is not fitting; indeed for the second
rs = 15 two exclusions come forth, for either it will be r = 15 and s = 1 or
r = 5 and s = 3, from which the values for a which are to be excluded will
be 8 and 4.
5. Now were it z = 2, it will be either rs = 57 or rs = 59. As above, this
admits two resolutions:
r = 57,
s = 1,

r = 19,
s = 3,

and the one other following: r = 59 and s = 1, from which arise these
three exclusions: a = 29, a = 11, a = 30.
6. Now were it z = 3, it will be either rs = 3 43 or rs = 3 44, the
resolutions of whose values will be returned as thus:
r = 129, r = 43, r = 66, r = 22,
s = 1,
s = 3, s = 2, s = 6,
from which come these four exclusions
a = 65,

a = 23,

a = 34,

a = 14.

7. Were it z = 4, it will be either rs = 230 or rs = 234, which numbers,

as they are both odd, give no exclusions.
8. Were it now z = 5, it will be either rs = 5 72 or rs = 5 73, from the
first of which extend the following resolutions:
2

r = 180, r = 90,
s = 2,
s = 4,

r = 60, r = 36, r = 30, r = 20,

s = 6, s = 10, s = 12, s = 18.

Then these values for a will therefore be excluded 91, 47, 33, 23, 21, 19.
The latter value gives r = 73, s = 5 or r = 365, s = 1, from which are
produced the exclusions 39 and 183.
8. [sic] Were it z = 6, it will be either rs = 3 173 or rs = 3 175, from
which follow the resolutions:
r = 519,
s = 1,

173, r = 525,
3,
s = 1,

175, 105, 75, 35, 25,

3,
5,
7, 15, 21.

Therefore these exclusions are produced:

260,

88,

263,

89,

55,

41,

25,

23.

9. Were it now z = 7, it will be either rs = 7 101 or rs = 7 102. Here

the first case by itself gives these resolutions:
r = 707,
s = 1,

r = 101,
s = 7,

and here the exclusions will be 354 and 54. So that we may impose a
boundary for ourselves, in the future we will omit all exclusions greater than
300.
10. Were it now z = 8, it will be either rs = 4 3 7 11 or rs = 4 233.
Then the following resolutions are produced:
r = 462, 154, 66, 42, r = 466,
s = 2,
6, 14, 22, s = 2,

from which we conclude the following exclusions:

a = 232,

80,

40,

32,

234.

11. Were it z = 9, it will be either rs = 9 130 or rs = 9 131; hence from

the second,
r = 393, 131,
s = 3,
9,
so therefore a = 198, 70 are excluded.
12. Were it z = 10, it will be either rs = 3 5 97 or rs = 5 17 17, hence
r = 485, 291, 97, r = 289, 85
s = 3,
5, 15, s = 5, 17,
from which are excluded
a = 244,

148,

56,

147,

51.

13. Were it z = 11, it will be either rs = 3 11 53, or rs = 32 5 11,

hence
r = 583, 159, 53, 440, 220, 176, 88,
s = 3,
11, 33, 4,
8,
10, 20,

80, 110, 44,

22, 16, 40,

hence
a = 293, 85,

43, 222, 114, 93, 54, 51,

63, 42.

14. Were it z = 12, it will be either rs = 6 347 or rs = 6 349, of which

neither give an exclusion.
15. Were it z = 13, it will be either rs = 13 4 47 or rs = 27 13 7,
hence
4

r = 94, 351, 273, 189, 117, 91,

s = 26, 7,
9,
13, 21, 27,

63,
39;

therefore are excluded

60,

179, 141, 101, 69, 59, 51.

16. This calculation should be pursued further in this way, so that it will
have been seen. We shall represent the exclusions arising from each value of
z itself in the following table:

z
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
37

Exclusions
4, 8,
11, 29, 30,
14, 23, 34, 65,

19, 21, 23, 33, 39, 47, 91, 183,
23, 25, 41, 55, 88, 89, 260, 263,
54,
32, 40, 80, 232, 234,
70, 198,
51, 56, 147, 148, 244,
42, 43, 51, 54, 63, 85, 93, 114, 222, 293,
51, 59, 60, 69, 101, 141, 179,
54, [57], 58, 66, 78, 102, 135, 162, 206, 207, [286],
64, 68, 88, 116, 236,
61, 77, 103, 161, 191,
120, 132, 168,
265, 266,
75, 80, 88, [117], 147, 243,
80, 83, 85, 97, 103, 109, 128, 145, 163, 221, 235, 272,
84, [85], 96, 123, 276,
90, 122, 178,
92, 140, 154,
98, 110, 154, 194,
108, 145,
103, 105, 111, 125, 129, 147, [165], 203, 209, 241,
122, 134, 166, 218, 225,
122, 131, 133, 146, 187, 214,
240,
139, 224,
256,
130,141, 190, [202],
137, 143, 162, 169, 247, 271,
141, 145, 171, 287,

z
38
39
40
41
42
43
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
53
54
56
58
59
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
69
71
73
75
78

Exclusions
212,
154, 202,
156, 174, 178, 242,
162, 186,
160, 220, 268,
164, [181], 195, 199, 211, 284,
208,
191, 217, 257,
184,
185, 241, 253,
[192], 260,
191, 193, [215, 225, 279, 297],
196, 236, 292,
202, 223, 245, 260,
224,
216, 240,
224, 236, 296,
225, 231, 233, 273,
239, 241, 282,
237,
240,
246, 282,
252,
274,
282,
263, 265, 295, 263, 265,
278,
286,
286,290,
298.

17. Among these numbers which are to be excluded as the letter a several
occur twice or thrice, insofar it turns out so whenever the number 232aa + 1
has three and more factors; thus we see the number 265 first from the value
z = 18, then to be excluded again from the value z = 69. Moreover, in the
particular case of the number 232 2652 + 1, it is comprised from these three
7

factors: 59 461 599, and indeed aside from this form the following three are
taken:
1
2
3

232 2562 + 10432 ,

232 342 + 40032 ,
232 352 + 40012 ,

18. We report moreover in this table all those numbers which are to be
excluded, arranged in order, and as well, those which occur more than once
we shall note with an asterisk:

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29

4, 8,
11, 14, 19,
21, 23*, 25, [29],
30, 32, 33, 34, 39,
40, 41, 42, 43, 47,
51*, 54*, 55, 56, [57], 58, 59,
60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69,
70, 75, 77, 78,
80*, 83, 84, 85*, 88*, 89,
90, 91, 92, 93, 96, 97, 98,
101, 102, 103*, 105, 108, 109,
110, 111, 114, 116, [117],
120, 122*, 123, 125, 128, 129,
130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 139,
140, 141*, 143, 145*, 146, 147*, 148,
154*, 156,
160, 161, 162, 163, 164, [165], 166, 168, 169,
171, 174, 178*, 179,
[181], 183, 184, 185, 186, 187,
190, 191*, [192], 193, 194, 195, 196, 198, 199,
202*, 203, 206, 207, 208, 209,
211, 212, 214, [215], 216, 217, 218,
220, 221, 222, 223, 224*, 225*,
231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236*, 237, 239,
240*, 241*, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247,
252, 253, 256, 257,
260*, 263*, 265*, 266, 268,
271, 272, [273], 274, 276, 278, [279],
282*, 284, 286*, 287,
290, 292, 293, 295, 296, [297], 298.

Therefore from the numbers which are to be excluded, all the remaining
written in place of a in the form 232aa + 1 will produce prime numbers.
These values are therefore exhibited for a itself in the following table:

1,
16
36,
62,
87,
118,
150,
173,
204,
248,
267,
291,

2,
,17,
37,
67,
94,
119,
151,
175,
205,
249,
269,
294,

3,
18,
38,
71,
95,
121,
152,
176,
210,
250,
270,
299;

5,
20,
44,
72,
99,
124,
153,
177,
213,
251,
275,

6,
22,
45,
73,
100,
126,
155,
180,
219,
254,
277,

7,
24,
46,
74,
104,
127,
157,
182,
226,
255,
280,

9,
26,
48,
76,
106,
136,
158,
188,
227,
258,
281,

10,
27,
49,
79,
107,
138,
159,
189,
228,
259,
283,

12,
28,
50,
81,
112,
142,
167,
197,
229,
261,
285,

13,
31,
52,
82,
113,
144,
170,
200,
230,
262,
288,

15,
35,
53,
86,
115,
149,
172,
201,
238,
264,
289,

of which the numbers extend up at the farthest to around 20 million.

10