Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: exit(-1), 0 is sometimes magic
Message-ID: <7135@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: 19 Jan 88 15:34:02 GMT
References: <502@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> <6935@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1179@wjvax.UUCP> <6983@brl-smoke.ARPA> <7208@ki4pv.uucp> <23160@cca.CCA.COM> <1843@bsu-cs.UUCP> <2305@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <1868@bsu-cs.UUCP> <6597@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 15
Keywords: exit, zero, flaming

In article <6597@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> mwm@eris.UUCP (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer) writes:
>Rahul, *all* numbers are unique and interesting. Even 1729.

1729 is especially interesting, or "not dull" as Ramanujan would say. However,
those who haven't already heard about it wouldn't get the joke anyway.

>You can even [prove] it, if you like.

Let U = { n : n positive integer AND n is uninteresting }.
Assume (*) that U is a non-empty set.  It must have a least
member, call it m.  But, since m is the smallest uninteresting
integer, it is quite interesting.  This means it could not
have been in U.  But that is a contradiction.  Therefore the
assumption (*) must be false.  Therefore there are no
uninteresting positive integers.  QED :-)