Oddest Prime
Mathmagicland
As an algebraist, I was thrilled to see IDEMPOTENT in today’s puzzle! Also enjoyed the other lively entries. A quick solve for a Friday, but very enjoyable!
@Grant Crossword puzzles can help us expand our horizons. I know I’ve learned a lot about things I normally don’t encounter.
ACIDTRIP, CRACK, OPIUM: BIGNONOS! Or so our PARENTS say.
@sc That’s not a word, it’s a phrase. A person who is snoring is said to be “sawing logs” because the noise is similar.
@LG Back in my day we bought them for parties in high school. Yikes!
@Bunny No, the imaginary number i is not an idempotent. The definition is: x is an idempotent if and only if x^2 = x. So the only complex numbers that are idempotents under the usual multiplication operation are 0 and 1. Mathematicians study lots of other sets with other operations and we generally use the same notation as we do for ordinary addition and multiplication of numbers. In many of those other sets there are more numerous and more interesting idempotents. (Although I would say that 0 and 1 are mighty interesting numbers.)
@logical I did the same.
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