Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Linguistically:

Prime is a word not a fact of the universe, just like Planet is a word and not a fact of the universe. Those words, unlike most words, have definitions put in place by authorities. The authorities might change the definitions over time as a new definition's usefulness exceeds that of an old definition.

Practically:

It's more useful to think of primes and planets as not including their recent ex-members than it is to include them.



Yeah, the article covers that pretty early on. Turns out that's actually not why 1 hasn't been prime for most of human history, though.

Actually read the article to find the answer!


I did read the article.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: