Re: prime numbers and African artifact
lefty@eexi.gr
20 Jul 1995 12:21:34 GMT
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].
>
> 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>
>
What about -1? 3 is divisible by 1, -1, 3 and -3.
Primes can be defined in any ring, the definition if I remember correctly is:
R is a ring, p \in R, p is prime \iff the ideal I generated by p is maximal.
That is every proper ( non R ) ideal containing p contains I.
Lefty Kreouzis -- lefty@eexi.gr
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