4 ms·
That breaks the uniqueness of the prime factorization. Mathematicians love uniqueness, almost as much as existence.
by drdec 5y ago
That breaks the uniqueness of the prime factorization. Mathematicians love uniqueness, almost as much as existence.
- Igelau 5y agoCould you please demonstrate an example of such a break? I think if we really look at it, we might see that it's really just convention and semantics. I don't want to seem like I'm cherry picking by providing my own example.
- drdec 5y agoThe unique prime factorization of 15 is 3⋅5. Let's call a number an Igelau prime if it is the number 1 or a prime number. Then an Igelau prime factorization of 15 is 3⋅5. Another Igelau prime factorization of 15 is 1⋅3⋅5. Another Igelau prime factorization of 15 is 1²⋅3⋅5. And so on. There are infinitely many Igelau prime factorizations of 15, thus there is no uniqueness. Edit: Clarifying what Igelau primes are.