[ExI] 2^57885161-1

[David Lubkin]

Anders wrote:

>>Versus numbers that are of broad mathematical (and practical)
>>significance, like -1, 0, 1, 2, i, e, pi, and phi.
>
>You are comparing apples or oranges (or rather, apples and Rosaceae) 
>- these are individual numbers, while primes typically occur as a 
>type of numbers. You should compare primes to odd numbers, fractions 
>or irrational numbers instead. There I think they hold their own quite nicely.

That doesn't make sense to me.

I could compare women mathematicians with Galois, Fermat,
and Descartes, and claim that the three of them were of greater
significance than the women. You then say the proper comparison
is women mathematicians with French mathematicians.

I'm not going to stick up for phi. But I'd pick any three of the others
over all of the primes that aren't of the three picked. For their
significance in mathematics, their appearance in nature, and
their role in technology.


-- David.