Re: [HM] Prime numbers & formulas

Avinoam Mann (MANN@vms.huji.ac.il)
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 03:10:10 +0200 (IST)

On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Joe Albree wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> 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
>

That Theorem is Th. 21 in Hardy and Wright's _Theory of Numbers_ (5th
ed.). According to their remarks, it is due to Goldbach (1752).

Avinoam Mann