The study of number

Prime Substrate

Underlying all number are the primes as the true basis for the natural numbers. The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (FTA) tells us that all natural numbers >= 2 are formed as the unique products of primes. Whatever sequential numbers cannot be formed this way are themselves primes. Thus, 0 and 1 stand out as special numbers (edge cases) more to do with functions on the primes and the natural numbers they form. True number begins at 2 - the first prime and first "real" number.

The number 1 represents an empty product of primes (no primes at all) and serves as the multiplicative identity and unit step. The number 0 is not meaningfully factorizable and serves as the additive identity and absorbing element of multiplication.

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Last update on 7E9B0F, edited 2 times. 2/2thh