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From: new@ee.udel.edu (Darren New)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.math,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Subtle Math Questions
Message-ID: <51667@nigel.ee.udel.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 91 20:28:53 GMT
References: <1991Apr22.235606.10856@ms.uky.edu> <1991Apr23.163231.27780@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <1991Apr23.144230.14500@mailer.cc.fsu.edu>
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In article <1991Apr23.144230.14500@mailer.cc.fsu.edu> mayne@cs.fsu.edu writes:
>Why isn't 1 considered a prime number?
>As far as I know (I am not a mathematician) this really is somewhat
>arbitrary. 

Actually, I ran across a "good" reason in a class a few years ago.
I don't really remember what it was, but it was something to do
with either order statistics or factorials or discrete probability
or something like that; i.e., nothing to do with primes or modulos
as such.   Maybe somebody out there can really come up with the answer.
Unfortunately, I don't have time to find all my old class notes
this month...              -- Darren

-- 
--- Darren New --- Grad Student --- CIS --- Univ. of Delaware ---
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