At 09:39 PM 11/19/98 -0600, Jim Choate instructed:
It's interesting that Fermat doesn't mention that the only prime that can use two as a factor is 4. And you can't factor 2 at all since we eliminate 1 as a potential candidate (another issue of symmetry breaking simply so we don't have to write '....works for every prime but 1' on all our theorems).
I thought I was following along until I got here, and got very lost. First question: I think the first sentence implies 4 is prime, so I must have the emphasis wrong. Unless you are saying that you cannot factor 4 as 2*2 because < of something I missed >. So the only factorization of 4 is 4*1, hence four is prime. The other explanation is "Whoosh" the whole conversation when over my head and I'm lost. -MpH -------- Mark P. Hahn Work: 212-278-5861 mhahn@tcbtech.com Home: 609-275-1834 TCB Technologies, Inc Consultant to: The SoGen Funds 1221 Avenue of the Americas, NY NY