Is 159 a prime number?

It is possible to find out using mathematical methods whether a given integer is a prime number or not.

For 159, the answer is: No, 159 is not a prime number.

The list of all positive divisors (i.e., the list of all integers that divide 159) is as follows: 1, 3, 53, 159.

For 159 to be a prime number, it would have been required that 159 has only two divisors, i.e., itself and 1.

Find out more:

What is a prime number?

As a consequence:

159 is a multiple of 1
159 is a multiple of 3
159 is a multiple of 53

For 159 to be a prime number, it would have been required that 159 has only two divisors, i.e., itself and 1.

However, 159 is a semiprime (also called biprime or 2-almost-prime), because it is the product of a two non-necessarily distinct prime numbers. Indeed, 159 = 3 x 53, where 3 and 53 are both prime numbers.

Is 159 a deficient number?

Yes, 159 is a deficient number, that is to say 159 is a natural number that is strictly larger than the sum of its proper divisors, i.e., the divisors of 159 without 159 itself (that is 1 + 3 + 53 = 57).

Parity of 159

159 is an odd number, because it is not evenly divisible by 2.

Find out more:

What is an even number?

Is 159 a perfect square number?

A number is a perfect square (or a square number) if its square root is an integer; that is to say, it is the product of an integer with itself. Here, the square root of 159 is about 12.610.

Thus, the square root of 159 is not an integer, and therefore 159 is not a square number.

What is the square number of 159?

The square of a number (here 159) is the result of the product of this number (159) by itself (i.e., 159 × 159); the square of 159 is sometimes called "raising 159 to the power 2", or "159 squared".

The square of 159 is 25 281 because 159 × 159 = 159² = 25 281.

As a consequence, 159 is the square root of 25 281.

Number of digits of 159

159 is a number with 3 digits.

What are the multiples of 159?

The multiples of 159 are all integers evenly divisible by 159, that is all numbers such that the remainder of the division by 159 is zero. There are infinitely many multiples of 159. The smallest multiples of 159 are:

0: indeed, 0 is divisible by any natural number, and it is thus a multiple of 159 too, since 0 × 159 = 0
159: indeed, 159 is a multiple of itself, since 159 is evenly divisible by 159 (we have 159 / 159 = 1, so the remainder of this division is indeed zero)
318: indeed, 318 = 159 × 2
477: indeed, 477 = 159 × 3
636: indeed, 636 = 159 × 4
795: indeed, 795 = 159 × 5
etc.

How to determine whether an integer is a prime number?

To determine the primality of a number, several algorithms can be used. The most naive technique is to test all divisors strictly smaller to the number of which we want to determine the primality (here 159). First, we can eliminate all even numbers greater than 2 (and hence 4, 6, 8…). Then, we can stop this check when we reach the square root of the number of which we want to determine the primality (here the square root is about 12.610). Historically, the sieve of Eratosthenes (dating from the Greek mathematics) implements this technique in a relatively efficient manner.

More modern techniques include the sieve of Atkin, probabilistic algorithms, and the cyclotomic AKS test.

Numbers near 159

Preceding numbers: …157, 158
Following numbers: 160, 161…

Nearest numbers from 159

Preceding prime number: 157
Following prime number: 163