5 ms·
you've just taken a ton of magic out of this article! It seems downright obvious that p^2 - 1 would have to be divisible by 24 for any prime other than 2 or 3,
by logicallee 12y ago
you've just taken a ton of magic out of this article!
It seems downright obvious that p^2 - 1 would have to be divisible by 24 for any prime other than 2 or 3, and in fact completely unremarkable, after you point out the factorization.
After factoring p^2 -1 into (p+1)(p-1) you could have given the rest of the proof as an exercise to the reader.
- leorocky 12y agoThe wikipedia article on the monster group doesn't even mention the number 24.
- shasta 12y agoFactoring p^2-1 into (p+1)(p-1) when you're trying to prove something about the factors of p^2 - 1 isn't exactly magic either. The entire proof is a pretty easy exercise. The only hard step is "stop reading and think for a moment".