On pp. 80-81 of the marvelous old textbook, "Number Thoery and its
History" (McGraw-Hill, 1948), Oystein Ore proves a proposition which
responds to very natural demands made by beginning students: no polynomial
with integral coefficients can take on only prime values for integral
values of the domain variable.
What is the origin of this theorem? My first guess would be Euler
- but that's just a guess.
Thanks,
Joe Albree
Department of Mathematics
Auburn University at Montgomery
Box 244023
Montgomery, AL 36124-4023 USA
(334) 244-3261
(334) 244-3826 FAX
joe2@strudel.aum.edu