title: Finding the nth prime number using Python
body: <p>When I run this code, even for just counting to the 10th prime number (instead of 1000) I get a skewed/jacked output--all "not prime" titles for my is_composite variable, my test_num is giving me prime and composite numbers, and my prime_count is off</p>
  
  <p>Some of the answers that developers have shared use functions and the math import--that's something we haven't yet covered.  I am not trying to get the most efficient answer; I am just trying to write workable python code to understand the basics of looping.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <pre><code>  # test a prime by diving number by previous sequence of number(s) (% == 0).  Do this by
    # counting up from 1 all the way to 1000.
  
  test_num = 2 #these are the numbers that are being tested for primality
  is_composite = 'not prime' # will be counted by prime_count
  prime_count = 0 #count the number of primes
  
  
  while (prime_count&lt;10): #counts number primes and make sures that loop stops after the 1000th prime (here: I am just running it to the tenth for quick testing)
  
  
   test_num = test_num + 1   # starts with two, tested for primality and counted if so
   x = test_num - 1  #denominator for prime equation
  
   while (x&gt;2):   
    if test_num%(x) == 0:
     is_composite = 'not prime'
    else: 
     prime_count = prime_count + 1 
    x = x - 1 
  
  
    print is_composite
    print test_num
    print prime_count 
  </code></pre>