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Sexy primes
(en.wikipedia.org)
Stupid sexy primes
Leave it to mathematicians to make 'sexy' boring.
leave it to mathematicians to find everything sexy
Bohemia By Dorothy Parker Authors and actors and artists and such Never know nothing, and never know much. Sculptors and singers and those of their kidney Tell their affairs from Seattle to Sydney. Playwrights and poets and such horses' necks Start off from anywhere, end up at sex. Diarists, critics, and similar roe Never say nothing, and never say no. People Who Do Things exceed my endurance; God, for a man that solicits insurance!
TIL mathematicians are 'horse's necks'
TL;DR: "Sexy" refers to "Sex" as in, the prefix that means "six," specifically prime numbers that are 6 apart from each other (e.g. 5/11, 13/19, etc. — more examples are given at the link.
There's nothing "sexy" about the math, it's just a play on the word sex as meaning both procreation, and its relation to the number six.
Numberphile episode on sexy primes, with the wonderful James Grime!
I never knew that 107 was doubly sexy
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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