Python: Why is threaded function slower than non thread

Question

Hello I'm trying to calculate the first 10000 prime numbers.

I'm doing this first non threaded and then splitting the calculation in 1 to 5000 and 5001 to 10000. I expected that the use of threads makes it significant faster but the output is like this:

    --------Results--------
Non threaded Duration:  0.012244000000000005 seconds
Threaded Duration:  0.012839000000000017 seconds

There is in fact no big difference except that the threaded function is even a bit slower.

What is wrong?

This is my code:

import math
from threading import Thread

def nonThreaded():
    primeNtoM(1,10000)


def threaded():
    t1 = Thread(target=primeNtoM, args=(1,5000))
    t2 = Thread(target=primeNtoM, args=(5001,10000))
    t1.start()
    t2.start()
    t1.join()
    t2.join()


def is_prime(n):
    if n % 2 == 0 and n > 2: 
        return False
    for i in range(3, int(math.sqrt(n)) + 1, 2):
        if n % i == 0:
            return False
    return True

def primeNtoM(n,m):
    L = list()
    if (n > m):
        print("n should be smaller than m")
        return
    for i in range(n,m):
        if(is_prime(i)):
                L.append(i)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import time
    print("--------Nonthreaded calculation--------")
    nTstart_time = time.clock()
    nonThreaded()
    nonThreadedTime = time.clock() - nTstart_time

    print("--------Threaded calculation--------")

    Tstart_time = time.clock()
    threaded()
    threadedTime = time.clock() - Tstart_time

    print("--------Results--------")
    print ("Non threaded Duration: ",nonThreadedTime, "seconds")
    print ("Threaded Duration: ",threadedTime, "seconds")

Answer 1

from: https://wiki.python.org/moin/GlobalInterpreterLock

In CPython, the global interpreter lock, or GIL, is a mutex that prevents multiple native threads from executing Python bytecodes at once. This lock is necessary mainly because CPython's memory management is not thread-safe. (However, since the GIL exists, other features have grown to depend on the guarantees that it enforces.)

This means: since this is CPU-intensive, and python is not threadsafe, it does not allow you to run multiple bytecodes at once in the same process. So, your threads alternate each other, and the switching overhead is what you get as extra time.