Question

Fill in the blank. The smallest prime number is ______?

Answer 1

Hint: We start solving the problem by recalling the definition of prime number as the natural number which is greater than 1 that is not a product of two numbers that is smaller than it. We then consider the natural number that is immediately next to 1 and verify whether it is satisfying the properties of a natural number to get the required answer.

Complete step by step answer:
According to the problem, we are asked to fill the blank with a suitable number: The smallest prime number is _____.
Now, let us recall the definition of a prime number.
We know that the prime number is defined as the natural number which is greater than 1 which is not a product of two smaller natural numbers than it. (or)
The prime number is defined as the natural number that is greater than 1 which is divisible only by itself and 1.
Let us check the natural numbers that were just greater than 1.
We can see that the number 2 is immediately next to 1 and is divisible by 1 and 2 itself, which satisfies the property of a prime number. We can see that the smallest natural number that is greater than 1 is 2.
So, the smallest prime number will be 2.
$\ therefore $ We have to fill the given blank with 2.

Note:
We should not consider rational numbers as factors while finding the prime number. We should not consider 1 as prime as it cannot be written as a product of two natural numbers. We should not also consider 1 as a composite number as it does not have more than 2 factors. Similarly, we can expect problems to find the value of the smallest even prime number and the smallest odd prime number.