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Re: prime numbers and African artifact
David Ullrich (ullrich@math.okstate.edu)
13 Jul 1995 19:43:58 GMT
Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan <dmckiern@weber.ucsd.edu> wrote:
>On Tue, 11 Jul 1995, Alistair J. R. Young wrote:
>
>>Rick Hawkins writes:
>>
>>> But only half- credit, since it's the wrong answer. 1 is not prime.
>>
>> Correct me if I'm wrong but if a prime number is only divisible by itself
>> and 1, 1 is prime. What else is it divisible by?
>
>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.
Dave Ullrich
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