From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 95 18:30:57 PST
To: jirib@cs.monash.edu.au
Subject: Re: What ever happened to... Cray Comp/NSA co-development
Message-ID: <acfcb5260c0210047aff@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 12:22 AM 12/20/95, Jiri Baum wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>Hello,
>
>tcmay wrote:
>...
>> Prime Factoring? Primes are easy to factor, of course. (Hint: Every prime
>> has two factors.)
>...
>
>Can someone enlighten me as to what the two factors are?
>
>With sensible definitions I've heard you either get one (just itself)
>or four (itself [p], both units [1,-1] and the co-whatsitsname [-p]).


You're looking too deeply. My point was in response to the very common
error people make in talking about "factoring a large prime number." A
prime is actually easy to factor: itself and 1, which is the point I was
making.

(One can quibble about whether 1 is a factor...I include it, though 1 is
admittedly not considered a prime. But this is a quibble, I think.)

--Tim May


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