From: walter kehowski <wak@next11.math.pitt.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 94 07:21:48 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Prime Numbers
Message-ID: <9404111421.AA02389@next11.math.pitt.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Use Mathematica. The positive integers less than or equal 1000 that are not  
prime but (2^n - n)/n is an integer are 1; 341 = 11*31; 561 = 3*11*17; and 645 =  
3*5*43. The largest less than 10,000 is 8911 = 7*19*67.

However, the significant fact is that the claim (Jeremy Cooper)

> The integer N is prime if:

>    2^N - 2
>   ---------
>       N              is an integer.

is actually fermat's little theorem as observed by Ray Cromwell. 


Walter A. Kehowski

<wak@next1.math.pitt.edu>