From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/8744 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Vaughan Pratt Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: 2 is an unexampled even prime Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2015 18:02:39 -0800 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Vaughan Pratt NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1448150584 11765 80.91.229.3 (22 Nov 2015 00:03:04 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2015 00:03:04 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Sun Nov 22 01:02:50 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtp3.mta.ca ([138.73.7.22]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1a0I7E-0003JE-4t for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Sun, 22 Nov 2015 01:02:48 +0100 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:49281) by smtp3.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1a0I68-0004ND-Ck; Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:01:40 -0400 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1a0I69-0007hP-2U for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Sat, 21 Nov 2015 20:01:41 -0400 In-Reply-To: Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:8744 Archived-At: "Even" can be dropped. There being no preceding such, 2 is an unexampled prime. The occasion of two centuries (to within the very month) after Boole's birth is a most auspicious one to point out that, as a prime number, the number of solutions of x^2 = x is unprecedented. Vaughan On 11/14/2015 6:23 PM, pjf wrote: > I wrote that I didn't know what "unexampled richness" means. Fred > Linton was the first to tell me that it means unparalleled. Indeed, > the Oxford English Dictionary gives the definition: > > Having no preceding or similar example; unprecedented, unparalleled. > > and lists 7 citations, the earliest from 1610. > > Sounds like a contradiction to me. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]