Re: prime numbers and African artifact

Peter Seebach (seebs@solutions.solon.com)
14 Jul 1995 07:48:38 -0500

In article <3u3tom$3js@utaipx02.uta.edu>, SEELIGER <jes7123@omega> wrote:
>Peter Seebach (seebs@solutions.solon.com) wrote:
>: > What's the easy way to show that 254365465431652436514232 is not
>: >prime again?
[proof elided]

>Yeah, but what's an easy way to show 254365465431652436514232 is not a
>binary number?

Duh. It is. It's
110101110111010010110111110100011101000001011111000011000001111001010110111000.

What gave you the idea it wasn't representable in binary? All even numbers
can be represented in binary. (Most odd numbers can, too. Exceptions are
the powers of three... actually, more generally, the only odd numbers that
can be represented base two are those that are also multiples of some power
of two, so they can be converted over.)

-s

-- 
Peter Seebach - seebs@solon.com -- seebs@intran.xerox.com
All the arrogant jerks who object to stereotypes are all alike.
C/Unix proto-wizard -- C/Unix questions? Send mail for help.
Copyright 1995 Peter Seebach. Not for distribution through Microsoft Network.