[582] in Professors_Quote_Board
Re: Mattuck, 18.063
warlord@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (warlord@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Wed Sep 16 19:31:20 1992
You missed some of the details, Dave....
The question was to define a numeric system in which unique
factorization didn't hold. The system he came up with was based on
1 + sqrt(-5),
and numbers would be of the form
a + b*sqrt(-5).
Mattuck then asked him for an example, and the student came up with
what Dave said, but couldnt come up with a second factorization of
'6'.
Other quotes from today:
"Im sure you all know what a prime number is. However, this course
not having any pre-requisites, I will tell you what a prime number is"
"[This proof] is only two lines long, but you have to find the RIGHT
two lines"
"Why does 'p' divide this? Because it obviously does!"
"[This proof will use] lots of strong induction, since thats more
mysterious"
