THREE SHIPS COLLIDE IN NEWARK BAY, NEAR NEW YORK CITY -- CNN

Reuters ^ | January 24, 2007

[HAL9000]

THREE SHIPS COLLIDE IN NEWARK BAY, NEAR NEW YORK CITY -- CNN

[B-Chan]

Thanks for playing!

[ReignOfError]

3 is an odd number.

Also a prime number.

[Salamander]

Well, ya know....the show must go on.

;-D

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

All odd numbers are prime. Proof by exhaustion: 3, 5, 7... all. (Ok, so I’m an engineer not a mathematician.)

[LilAngel]

Oh dear. that explains a lot.

Let me ask you something. When engineers “improve” an intersection, taking it from congested to dangerous, do they understand what they’re doing? When they bank a curve in the wrong direction, and cars slide off the edge, are the engineers keeping count, and laughing?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If I’d been a physicist I would have said: Proof by exhaustion, 3,5,7,[ 9 excluded as experimental error], 11, 13, ... all, with 99 percent confidence.

If I’d been a mathematician I would have said: First we need to define a field, the set of positive numbers, which is closed over the operation of multiplication. Next, we need to define a test for prime. Since our test will contain the operation of factorization we will need to define the operation... Excuse me, what was the question, again?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

No, one isn’t prime, by definition of prime numbers. The prime number theorem asserts that prime factorization is unique. Wouldn’t be true, since you add as many factors of one (one to N) as you like.

I know you were kidding, but even numbers greater than 2 cannot, by definition, be prime. Prime numbers are integers greater than one that can only be evenly divided by the integers one and itself. Even numbers are, by definition, are integer multiples of 2. The only multiple of 2 which is only divisible by two and itself is, 2.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Can you prove (without looking on the web) that there is no last prime number? Euclid had a very simply proof, which I discovered on my own when I was in grammar school.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I was thinking harbor pilot.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

More of an allision, actually.

[vaudine]

Pining for the Nobel laureate in lit. are we?

vaudine

[LilAngel]

I proved it in college, but I don’t remember how. Do you?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

According to his wikiography, Captain Hazelwood was never convicted of operating a vessel while intoxicated. He was convicted of negligent discharge of oil. His master’s lisence is still valid. Good luck finding a billet.

The Exxon-Valdez incident was clearly not a collision, but a grounding, or possibly an allision, although I think grounding is more accurate.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If there is a last prime, then multiply all primes together and add one. The result will not be divisibly by any of them, hence, no last prime.

X = 2*3*5*7*11*13....*P_last +1

Since X isn't divisible by any element of the set [2,3,..P_last], and clearly isn't a member of the set, there can be no last prime.

It turns out the probability that an integer selected at random will be prime is inversely proportional to its natural logarithm. Therefore:

limit N->Infinity {Integral 2 to N(dx/log(x))} = number of primes less than N.

If N = 10, the integral equals 5.12, the number of primes is 4, if N = 10,000,000 the integral equals 664917.360, the number of primes less than a million is 664579.

Is 2147483647 = 2^31-1 prime?

Is 2147483637 ?

[Kenny Bunk]

Captain Hazlewood was guilty of asking a licensed Mate to make a turn at a buoy. "See Buoy, make turn."

Having just survived a long sea voyage on a boat crewed by teenagers, I would say that not a man jack of'em would have screwed up that simple order. THe guy who should lose his license would have been that total yutz of a Mate. A lot of this will happen because they lightened up the SATs.

But everything, is the Captain's Fault. Has to be. Ask George Bush.

[LilAngel]

Not only is it not divisible by any of the prime numbers, but it’s not divisible by any whole number other than 1 and itself. So yeah, there’s always more prime numbers.

Don’t talk to me about logs. It gives me a headache.

[mikrofon]

Here in N.Y. State-

% We all live with a Yellow Submarine... %

(Unfortunately in the case of all the Dem candidates, none of them "run silent" or "run deep".)

[Sudetenland]

AS I said before, I thought we had a "sub-prime" crisis, not a shortage of prime numbers. To make you even sicker, we can go on and discuss lone numbers as each prime number has only itself and one (which is the loneliest number) to play with.

And yes, I know what Samuel Johnson said about puns: "He who would pun, would pick a pocket."

It is primarily a profoundly, primative propensity of purposely picking properly pathetic plays on words in perpetuity for personal pleasure.

[Sudetenland]

Alas poor New Yorik,
I knew him well Harboratio.
A Manhattan of infinite jest.

[Doctor Raoul]

Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria...?