In mathematics, the Sieve of Eratosthenes is a simple, ancient algorithm for fining all prime numbers up to a specified integer. It is the predecessor to the modern Sieve of Atkin, which is faster but more complex. It was created by Eratosthenes, an ancient Greek mathematician. Wheel factorization is often applied on the list of integers to be checked for primality, before the Sieve of Eratosthenes is used, to increase the speed.