Stan wrote: << I had a student in my computer class ask me a mathematics question: she asked what was the use of prime numbers? She knew there were lots of work done on primes, but what she wanted to know was, what *good* are they, besides being a fascination to math people.

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This is probably not what she meant, but I would say primes are to integers as the elements are to matter: They are the fundamental building blocks. --Dan