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Revise sieve's exercise instructions (#2530)
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* Revise sieve's exercise instructions

* update example
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tasxatzial authored Feb 16, 2025
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Expand Up @@ -6,37 +6,96 @@ A prime number is a number larger than 1 that is only divisible by 1 and itself.
For example, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 13 are prime numbers.
By contrast, 6 is _not_ a prime number as it not only divisible by 1 and itself, but also by 2 and 3.

To use the Sieve of Eratosthenes, you first create a list of all the numbers between 2 and your given number.
Then you repeat the following steps:
To use the Sieve of Eratosthenes, first, write out all the numbers from 2 up to and including your given number.
Then, follow these steps:

1. Find the next unmarked number in your list (skipping over marked numbers).
1. Find the next unmarked number (skipping over marked numbers).
This is a prime number.
2. Mark all the multiples of that prime number as **not** prime.

You keep repeating these steps until you've gone through every number in your list.
Repeat the steps until you've gone through every number.
At the end, all the unmarked numbers are prime.

~~~~exercism/note
The tests don't check that you've implemented the algorithm, only that you've come up with the correct list of primes.
To check you are implementing the Sieve correctly, a good first test is to check that you do not use division or remainder operations.
The Sieve of Eratosthenes marks off multiples of each prime using addition (repeatedly adding the prime) or multiplication (directly computing its multiples), rather than checking each number for divisibility.
The tests don't check that you've implemented the algorithm, only that you've come up with the correct primes.
~~~~

## Example

Let's say you're finding the primes less than or equal to 10.

- List out 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, leaving them all unmarked.
- Write out 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, leaving them all unmarked.

```text
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
```

- 2 is unmarked and is therefore a prime.
Mark 4, 6, 8 and 10 as "not prime".

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10]
```

- 3 is unmarked and is therefore a prime.
Mark 6 and 9 as not prime _(marking 6 is optional - as it's already been marked)_.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 4 is marked as "not prime", so we skip over it.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 5 is unmarked and is therefore a prime.
Mark 10 as not prime _(optional - as it's already been marked)_.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 6 is marked as "not prime", so we skip over it.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 7 is unmarked and is therefore a prime.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 8 is marked as "not prime", so we skip over it.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 9 is marked as "not prime", so we skip over it.

```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

- 10 is marked as "not prime", so we stop as there are no more numbers to check.

You've examined all numbers and found 2, 3, 5, and 7 are still unmarked, which means they're the primes less than or equal to 10.
```text
2 3 [4] 5 [6] 7 [8] [9] [10]
```

You've examined all the numbers and found that 2, 3, 5, and 7 are still unmarked, meaning they're the primes less than or equal to 10.

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