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Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-25-2006, 07:06 PM
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#1
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,466
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Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
Do you think order will finally be found in the seemingly chaotic and random nature of prime numbers? Or is the obsession to find order just a constraint of human thinking?
The RSA security foundation is built on prime numbers. We're using primes in our E commerce/banking security but really haven't cracked the code so to speak.
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fuzzy? cute?
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-25-2006, 07:13 PM
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#2
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Early-Retirement.org Founder Developer of FIRECalc
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,829
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
The 18th - 29th digits of the true safe withdrawal rate is a very long prime! :
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Often uninformed, seldom undecided.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-25-2006, 07:27 PM
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#3
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: San Diego
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
I find the Fibonacci Numbers and The Golden Ratio more fascinating myself, due to it's almost ubiquitous presence in nature. Sea Shells, Flower Petals, Pine Cones, Plant Stems all follow this sequence, and paintings and architecture seem most pleasing to the eye when using this ratio. Neat stuff.
Chaos Theory is neat, though. I don't personally believe the obsession to find order is a constraint of human thinking. After all, we keep finding it! The thing is, since the big bang, the universe has gone from perfect order to more and more chaos, entropy continues to do it's work as the universe expands. Life is like a little, defiant shout against disorder, reversing entropy a tiny bit for just a blink of time. I think I heard somewhere that eventually matter and energy will dissapate over such a broad area that all the stars with snuff out and there won't be enough matter in any one place to form new ones. A Dark Universe, where only dust and low levels of infrared energy scuttle across an impossibly empty chasm of space. That would kind of suck. Maybe at some point the universe will contract again and we start the process all over?
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-25-2006, 08:07 PM
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#4
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 3,895
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
"the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible"~~albert einstein
i've posted the following before. seems appropriate here...
a beginner's guide to constructing the universe
the mathematical archetypes of nature, art & science
a voyage from 1 to 10
by michael s. schneider
http://tinyurl.com/gh8kk
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"off with their heads"~~dr. joseph-ignace guillotin
"life should begin with age and its privileges and accumulations, and end with youth and its capacity to splendidly enjoy such advantages."~~mark twain - letter to edward kimmitt 1901
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 10:23 AM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
Depends. Is 36DD a prime number?
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 11:38 AM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
Quote:
Depends. Is 36DD a prime number?
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Don't know if it's a Prime Number but I'd say it bears immediate further investigation
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 11:45 AM
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#7
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
17 is my favorite number and very prime.
The brachistochrone problem was posed by Johann Bernoulli in Acta Eruditorum in June 1696. 36DD may be the answer to this problem.
And it contains 69 a fine number to go with 17.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 11:46 AM
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#8
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by OldAgePensioner
Johann Bernoulli
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Loved his removable disk drives.
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 11:55 AM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
He also sells great dry pasta and some great Extra Virgin olive oil.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 11:56 AM
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#10
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
For love of all things pure and holy, can we keep our mystical prime numbers out of the gutter?? *
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fuzzy? cute?
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 11:57 AM
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#11
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2003
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
You can trust us to drive any topic into the gutter in 5 posts or less. Guaranteed, or your money back.
__________________
Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 12:05 PM
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#12
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,352
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
I like this theorem about primes.
English translation of Euclid's actual proof.
Theorem.
There are more primes than found in any finite list of primes.
Proof.
Call the primes in our finite list p1, p2, ..., pr. Let P be any common multiple of these primes plus one (for example, P = p1p2...pr+1). Now P is either prime or it is not. If it is prime, then P is a prime that was not in our list. If P is not prime, then it is divisible by some prime, call it p. Notice p can not be any of p1, p2, ..., pr, otherwise p would divide 1, which is impossible. So this prime p is some prime that was not in our original list. Either way, the original list was incomplete.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 03:03 PM
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#13
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 328
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
I find Cantor's logical reasoning about infinite quantities to be more interesting than prime numbers.* The revelation that there is an unbounded hierarchy of infinities remains astounding.* David Hilbert, the "King" of mathematics 100 years ago, said
Quote:
"No one shall expel us from the Paradise that Cantor has created."
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 03:26 PM
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#14
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Full time employment: Posting here.
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cute n Fuzzy Bunnay
Depends. Is 36DD a prime number?
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Assuming you're in hexadecimal, then when you convert 36DD to -- wait a minute, did I miss a joke or something?
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
06-26-2006, 07:13 PM
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#15
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Re: Anyone else here fascinated by prime numbers?
if you're really fascinated you might find the following site of interest: "an exciting collection of curiosities, wonders and trivia related to prime numbers" (i'm not fascinated, but did find this of interest nonetheless) http://primes.utm.edu/curios/
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