Re: What is the MOST INTERESTING integer you know?



0 is an integer. There is absolutely no question about that.

When did it come to be called an integer? Don't you have some
documanted PROOF?


You are being silly. By today's definition, the integers are
{...,-2,-1,0,1,2,...}, forming a ring with the usual addition and
multiplication. Check out the definition of integers on Wikipedia, for
example.

Whether, at any point in time, the term "integer" did not include zero
is a completely different question - just like "function" did not
receive the meaning it has today until relatively late.

There isn't even any consensus on whether zero is a natural number or
not -- some people prefer to start the natural numbers with zero,
others with one.

Of course none of these are of real interest to the original question
--- as was noted, the sum of the two square roots of any complex number
is zero. So four is not a solution to the question; neither is one, etc
....

.

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