Re: prime numbers and African artifact

Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan (dmckiern@weber.ucsd.edu)
Thu, 13 Jul 1995 21:31:08 -0700

On 13 Jul 1995, David Ullrich wrote:

] Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan <dmckiern@weber.ucsd.edu> wrote:
]
]> I'm familiar with three definitions of "prime number".
]>
]> [1] A positive integer divisible only by itself and by 1.
]>
]> [2] Same as [1] except that the number must also be greater than 1.
]>
]> [3] Same as [1] or [2] except that the number must also be greater
]> than 2.
]>
]> For my part, I don't care for definitions [2] or [3].
]
] Hmm. How do you feel about the uniqueness of prime factorization
] for positive integers? A lot of us are for it.

Sorry, you can't quite =have= that, as 1 is a positive integer.

When you sit down and state what you =can= have, you should see that
the matter comes down to =where=, rather than =whether=, you use an
expression equivalent to "except 1".

It's always Dark. Light only hides the Darkness.

Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan (619) 535 - 0546
athanatos@UCSD.edu 132.239.147.2 <75013,676>