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posted by Fnord666 on Monday November 05 2018, @02:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-means-it's-composite dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

What Is an "Almost Prime" Number?

When I saw a math paper with the phrase "almost prime" in the title, I thought it sounded pretty funny. It reminded me of the joke about how you can't be a little bit pregnant. On further thought, though, it seems like someone whose pregnancy is 6 weeks along and who hasn't yet noticed a missed period is meaningfully less pregnant that someone rounding the bend at 39 weeks who can balance a dinner plate on their belly. Perhaps "almost prime" could make sense too.

A number is prime if its only factors are 1 and itself. By convention, the number 1 is not considered to be prime, so the primes start 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and so on. Hence, a prime number has one prime factor. A number with two prime factors, like 4 (where the two factors are both 2) or 6 (2×3) is definitely less prime than a prime number, but it kind of seems more prime than 8 or 30, both of which have three prime factors (2×2×2 and 2×3×5, respectively). The notion of almost primes is a way of quantifying how close a number is to being prime.


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @07:08PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 05 2018, @07:08PM (#758135)

    I'm an Anonymous Coward striving for (and apparently failing to acquire) a +1 Funny. Perhaps data management and mathematics jokes aren't as universally accessible as I'd thought.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Funny=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Monday November 05 2018, @11:32PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 05 2018, @11:32PM (#758263) Journal

    Perhaps data management and mathematics jokes aren't as universally accessible as I'd thought.

    The process of growing up takes quite a long time in males.
    I'm happy (for you) to see you haven't stopped on the way.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford