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Looking for (possibly accidental) patterns. The obsession with prime numbers (humans decided they were "prime", i.e. most important, based on arbitrary conside
by profsummergig 1y ago
Looking for (possibly accidental) patterns.
The obsession with prime numbers (humans decided they were "prime", i.e. most important, based on arbitrary considerations).
It seems like a version of astrology to me.
Am I wrong? I'd be happy to be proved wrong.
- eapriv 1y agoYou are wrong. Prime numbers are fundamental to mathematics.
- mjyh 1y agoThe property of certain input numbers being "prime" is required for RSA key generation.
- a57721 1y ago> humans decided they were "prime", i.e. most important, based on arbitrary considerations No, not arbitrary considerations. The term goes back at least to Euclid who investigated factorization of integers in his "Elements". He used the greek word "protos" that was later translated to Latin as "primus". It doesn't mean "most important", rather "first". The idea is that primes are the "multiplicative building blocks" for other numbers, the "origin" or "first principles", because every integer factors into primes. When a mathematical object can be decomposed in some way, it is very natural to study the irreducible blocks, because many questions boil down to them.