The Derivative of a Number

Re:The Derivative of a Number by j2kun on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @09:03PM (#8200665)

This article is defining a new notion which is different from the derivative of a function. It's called derivative because of its inspirations and similarities to the classical idea of a derivative. It's interesting because it appears to have close relationships to important open problems in number theory, such as the Goldbach conjecture.

And it's not restricted to primes, it's just defined first for primes and then extended to all integers later.

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Re:The Derivative of a Number by glandium on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @09:39PM (#8200741)

What is confusing is that the article introduces both derivatives (of a function and of a number) as D, when both are definitely not the same thing.

EDIT: that is, the fact that they have the same name and the same symbol is what's confusing.

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Re:The Derivative of a Number by tel on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @11:06PM (#8200927)

For better or worse that's very common. A big part of learning to read advanced math is keeping track of the "kind of thing" each variable is meant to be. If you do that, then overloading D is a convenience which illustrates similarities.

But if you're not a professional mathematician then such overloading is terrifically confusing. Actually, I'm fairly certain it still is even for professional mathematicians.

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Re:The Derivative of a Number by dead10ck on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @09:29PM (#8200727)

Ahh, I see. That makes more sense.

However, I'm not sure I understand how the definition extends to all numbers. Edit: nvm, I'm dumb.

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