I recently got into a protracted discussion in which the other person insisted that the fact that the character 0 is used in place value notation is merely a place holder is evidence that zero is not a number, but rather a concept we use to indicate the lack of a number. I have long…
Month: November 2014
Euclid’s proof of infinite primes
It has been known since at least Euclid’s time that there are an infinite number of prime numbers. Here is his basic proof: Imagine that there is a finite set of prime numbers, P. Let N be the product of all the elements of P, plus 1. N’s factors do not include any element of…
My Muse
I smothered my muse with a down-filled pillow And left her corpse stretched out, Naked and prostrate, On the futon in the spare room. I held her in my dreams for a fortnight, Then discarded the memory, Wretched and withered, To the wraiths that live behind the house. But her siren call kept singing to…