_______________________________________________________________________________ / Several students were asked to prove that all odd integers are prime. \ | The first student to try to do this was a math student. "Hmmm... | | Well, 1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, and by induction, we have that all | | the odd integers are prime." | | The second student to try was a man of physics who commented, "I'm not | | sure of the validity of your proof, but I think I'll try to prove it by | | experiment." He continues, "Well, 1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is | | prime, 9 is... uh, 9 is... uh, 9 is an experimental error, 11 is prime, 13 | | is prime... Well, it seems that you're right." | | The third student to try it was the engineering student, who responded, | | "Well, to be honest, actually, I'm not sure of your answer either. Let's | | see... 1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is... uh, 9 is... | | well, if you approximate, 9 is prime, 11 is prime, 13 is prime... Well, it | | does seem right." | | Not to be outdone, the computer science student comes along and says | | "Well, you two sort've got the right idea, but you'll end up taking too long! | | I've just whipped up a program to REALLY go and prove it." He goes over to | | his terminal and runs his program. Reading the output on the screen he says, | \ "1 is prime, 1 is prime, 1 is prime, 1 is prime..." / -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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