this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

It is no new number, though you can add infinitely many ones to the prime factorisation if you want to. In general we don't append 1 to the prime factorisation because it is trivial.

In commutative Algebra, a unitary commutative ring can have multiple units (in the multiplicative group of the reals only 1 is a unit, x*1=x, in this ring you have several "ones"). There are elemrnts in these rings which we call prime, because their prime factorisation only contains trivial prime factors, but of course all units of said ring are prime factors. Hence it is a bit quirky to define ordinary primes they way you did, it is not about the amount of prime factors, it is about their properties.

Edit: also important to know: (ℝ,×), the multiplicative goup of the reals, is a commutative, unitary ring, which happens to have only one unit, so our ordinary primes are a special case of the general prime elements.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Oof, I remember why I didn't study math 😅
But thanks for the explanation

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, higher math is a total brainfuck :D You're welcome.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I was never able to wrap my head around quaternions.

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