Thought for Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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In 1914, the first crossword puzzle was
printed in a newspaper. The creator
received $4000 down ...
and $3000 across.

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Update to yesterday's tftd:

The number one is far more special than a prime!
It is the unit (the building block) of the positive
integers, hence the only integer which merits its
own existence axiom in Peano's axioms. It is the
only multiplicative identity (1.a = a.1 = a for all
numbers a). It is the only perfect nth power for
all positive integers n. It is the only positive
integer with exactly one positive divisor.
But it is not a prime. So why not? Below we give
four answers, each more technical than its precursor.
Answer One: By definition of prime!

The definition is as follows.
An integer greater than one is called a prime number
if its only positive divisors (factors) are one and itself.
...
So indeed there was a time that many folks defined one to be a prime

http://primes.utm.edu/notes/faq/one.html

tftd liked it better when one was a prime number and not just
"special".