Yes, it does depend on how you define prime BUT speaking as a *mathematician*
it is good to have definitions for which we get interesting theorems, like the unique (prime) factorization theorem that says every natural number has unique prime factors, so 6 has just 2 and 3, NOT 2 and 3 or 2 and 3 and 1. So we don't want 1 as a prime or the theorem doesn't work. *statistician* do a Bing or Google search on prime number and see what frequency of entries define 1 as prime (I didn't find any). So from an empirical point of view usage says 1 is not prime *artist* try Bing of Google images and see how many pretty pictures show 1 as prime. I didn't see any. Cheers, Duncan On Sat, Dec 10, 2011 at 5:19 PM, Pamela McCorduck <pam...@well.com> wrote: > I asked the in-house mathematician about this. When he began, "Well, it > depends on how you define 'prime' . . ." I knew it was an ambiguous case. > > PMcC > > > > On Dec 10, 2011, at 5:12 PM, Marcos wrote: > > On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 2:17 AM, Russell Standish <r.stand...@unsw.edu.au> >> wrote: >> >>> Has one ever been prime? Never in my lifetime... >>> >> >> Primes start at 2 in my world. There was mathematician doing a talk >> once, and before he started talking, he checked his microphone: >> >> "Testing...., testing, 2, 3, 5, 7" >> >> That's how I remember. >> >> Mark >> >> ==============================**============================== >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >> > > > ==============================**============================== > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > -- George Duncan georgeduncanart.com (505) 983-6895 Represented by ViVO Contemporary 725 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward. Soren Kierkegaard
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