Definition:Prime Number/Also defined as
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Definition
Some treatments of number theory define a prime as being either positive or negative, by specifying that a prime number is an integer with exactly $4$ integer divisors.
By this definition, a composite number is defined as an integer (positive or negative) which is not prime and not equal to $\pm 1$.
There are advantages to this approach, because then special provision does not need to be made for negative integers.
Some sources implement this notion by introducing the concept of a prime integer.
Sources
- 1989: Ephraim J. Borowski and Jonathan M. Borwein: Dictionary of Mathematics ... (previous) ... (next): prime number or prime