From: Jim Gillogly <jim@acm.org>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 01:04:52 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Goldbach's Conjecture - a question about prime sums of odd numbers
Message-ID: <365448AE.D504F2D6@acm.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Ray Arachelian wrote:
> "Igor Chudov @ home" wrote:

> > Well, take 11, for example, it cannot be repsesented as a sum of different
> > primes. It cannot, pure and simple.

> Bullshit: 7+5+(-1)=11.  Last I heard, negative numbers weren't excluded from 
> being primes.  7 is different from 5, -1 is different from 7 and from 5.

If this is boiling down to a definition of primes, I'll haul out my Hardy &
Wright, page 2:

    A number p is said to be prime if (i) p > 1, (ii) p has no positive
    divisors except 1 and p.  ...  It is important to observe that 1 is not
    reckoned as a prime.

My number theory class at college (admittedly that was three decades ago)
also started the prime series at 2 and went up from there.  The term
"odd primes" always meant 3 and above, not 1 and above.

YMMV.
-- 
	Jim Gillogly
	29 Blotmath S.R. 1998, 16:29
	12.19.5.12.12, 4 Eb 5 Ceh, Ninth Lord of Night