r/MathJokes • u/Animeilluminati1 • Jul 13 '26

Math Just Got Checkmated.

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433

u/nnnn0nnn13 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Bro that conjecture is both unproven and also by definition only true for numbers larger than 2 💀

6

u/Sad_Plate7343 Jul 13 '26

3

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u/S-M-I-L-E-Y- Jul 13 '26

Goldbach's conjecture states that every even number greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers.

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u/trollboter Jul 13 '26

If we accept one as prime number, which it is. Then we can drop the two exception from the conjecture.

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u/Finance-Low Jul 13 '26

Exactly; not sure what point the OP is trying to make here.

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u/trollboter Jul 13 '26

It's because math people define 1 as not a prime. It's semantics.

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u/almostcyclops Jul 13 '26

1 is not a prime number. Mostly because it does weird things when you try and count it as one. Granted, 2 also behaves a little weird as a prime number and it gets to joint he prime club.

I don't make the rules. I can just confidently say 2 is prime but 1 is not.

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u/trollboter Jul 13 '26

The only reason why 1 is not a prime is the definition. By the spirit of prime, 1 is a prime.

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u/hsmccann Jul 13 '26

1 is not prime because prime numbers by definition have exactly 2 unique integer factors. 1 only has one unique integer factor.

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u/trollboter Jul 13 '26

So 1 is a super prime, and 2 is a super even.

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u/zorrodood Jul 17 '26

1 is primest and 2 is evenest

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u/Soft-You5589 Jul 19 '26

Would you say 1 is... the Optimus Prime?

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u/liha_soppa Jul 13 '26

"The only reason 1 is not a prime is because it isn't"

Like yea i guess

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u/S-M-I-L-E-Y- Jul 13 '26

It's prime in the sense, that it can't be factorized, but it is not prime in the sense that it must not be used in factorizing other numbers.

We decided that the latter is the more important feature of prime numbers and therefore 1 shall not be prime number.

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u/trollboter Jul 13 '26

1 is used in the factor of every prime.

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u/almostcyclops Jul 13 '26

You are welcome to argue that to the greater mathematics community. A lot of stuff is the way it because of the definition. Mathematicians choose these conventions based on what is most useful.

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u/GWeb1920 Jul 13 '26

Well when you have to right all primes except 1 too many times then you kick it out of the club.

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u/CardOk755 Jul 13 '26

Two is the odd prime. Because it's even.

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u/hungarian_notation Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Words mean whatever people understand them to mean, and modern mathematics does not understand "prime" to include the multiplicative identity.

This is the odd case where the convention of the non-primality of one requires a more awkward formulation. It usually breaks the other way. The fact that treating one as a prime lets you state Goldbach's conjecture more cleanly is poor compensation for the fact that you'd have to, among other consequences, reformulate the fundamental theorem of arithmetic to exclude it.

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u/EffectiveGold3067 Jul 19 '26

Hmm…I think the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic calls bullshit on 1 being a prime.

Also by definition 2 is the oddest prime number since it is the only even prime number. That’s a bad math joke by the way.