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The concept of “one” holds a dual role. It represents a countable unit: something you can put in a bowl and also stands for indivisibility itself. When you divide any quantity by an indivisible unit, you’re simply counting how many of those indivisibles fit within it. Then comes 2: the first number that is divisible, but only by itself and the indivisible one. That’s what makes it prime. A prime is a number divisible only by itself and by 1, the indivisible origin of all counting.


> Then comes 2: the first number that is divisible, but only by itself and the indivisible one.

This does hold in the ring Z. In the ring Z[i], 2 = (1+i)*(1-i), and the two factors are prime elements.




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