Prime Numbers Get Hitched

Seed Magazine ^ | Feb/Mar 2006 | Marcus du Sautoy

[AmishDude]

It is a poorly-written article.

[JDoutrider]

Bump for later

[spyone]

Wasn't Clinton the 42nd president? He developed his own theory of relativity.

[SuziQ]

Pinging for the Primes!!

[AmishDude]

Wasn't Clinton the 42nd president? He developed his own theory of relativity.

Relativity? Is that a crack at Arkansas?

[NathanR]

Does it start with:"What is the difference between a prostitute and a bagel?"?

[AmishDude]

The truth is, it starts any way you want.

[LibWhacker]

Forget 42. See 49. :-)

[muawiyah]

Whatever you want ~ just don't mess with the big pivot hole smack dead center at the South Pole. I'll need that for when we put the Moon back on it's stand in the library.

[be4everfree]

Even if you dont consider 1 as a prime number, the product of the first three would be 2X3X5 = 30. It is only if you skip 5 and go to 7 that you can reach 42. So I guess I dont get it or I dont understand something.

Please explain.

Now add the 5 back in and you get 47


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1480914/posts

[PatrickHenry]

Prime ping list

[LibWhacker]

When I told Vicomte to forget 42, I wasn't talking about your post (which was a very good post, I thought). :-)

[bert]

Many think the ultimate answer is 42 but the text says forty-two. This has been interpreted not as a number but an equation the solution of which is 38.

That is to say, the ultimate answer is actually 38 and not 42 as is widely believed.

[I see my hands]

"tree falls in the forest type question"

That is a bogus question.. not a profound question.

A tree falling in a forest makes no sound ever. A tree falling in a forest always causes the air around it to vibrate.

The Earth is silent. Sound is our brain's interpretation of vibrating air. Sound is a function of humans and not a function of trees.

[freedumb2003]

Software Designers approach to Prime:

1 is prime, 2 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is a feature, 11 is prime, 13 is prime...

[LibWhacker]

primes.utm.edu . . . nice site, thanks. Bookmarked.

[freedumb2003]

The Earth is silent. Sound is our brain's interpretation of vibrating air. Sound is a function of humans and not a function of trees.

I don't think you understand the question. You POSTULATE the falling tree vibrates the air. You are PROBABLY right. But you have no way of KNOWING, since no observation takes place.

It keeps sophomores up at night, like the universal existence of the term that sounds like "jinantonix" keeps sophomore lingists up late at night.

[Grut]

I understand that quantum mechanics can also cook a mean omelet.

They can also 'not cook' it simultaneously. But only if you don't look.

[DannyTN]

This one is less relevant because it doesn't have a physicist, but...

A mathematician, an accountant and an economist crashed at sea.

The mathematician calculated the distance to shore and the odds of survival and sank immediately.

The accountant refigured the distance to shore until it was close enough to swim.

The economist assumed he had a life raft.

[longshadow]

it is perhaps worth pointing out that it was an astronomer who pointed out to me that "42" = 6 x 9..........

....... in base 13!