Prime Memory

Prime Memory

WC 297

“Something is wrong here.”

“It’s because you don’t have the right coordinates, George.” Harry looked at me as if I was an idiot or worse. “You clearly didn’t apply the concept of prime numbers in developing those coordinates. You remember primes, don’t you?”

“Um, Yeah, sorta, maybe. 3,7,5,1. Something like that.” I said as I glanced at Harry, hoping my lack of memory of this part of math wouldn’t show.

“Geez. How did you ever get to be a missile programmer anyway? You can’t just put a hoozit into a whatnot and expect to get a geewhiz. It takes finesse, skill, knowledge. You have to be able to reach the star you’re aiming for. With those coordinates you’ll end up in deepest darkest space. That trillion dollar missile will never be heard from again.” He paused. “At least not in our lifetime. It’ll blow up somewhere in the Tadpole Galaxy. You don’t even want those inhabitants coming here angry, believe me.” Harry looked at my figures and shook his head.

“Tadpole Galaxy? You’re kidding me. There is no such place,” I said.

“Yes there is. Look it up. Tadpole Galaxy, PGC 57129, Arp 188, UGC 10214.” Harry spouted this information like a computer. “I would’ve gone there myself, but it is 400 million light years away and I wouldn’t be home in time for dinner.”

My mouth was open as I stared at Harry.

“Well, are you going to find the right coordinates or not? I mean, come on, George. This IS rocket science, after all. We DO need to be exact.”

I returned to the computer and tried to recompute the coordinates utilizing the concept of prime numbers as applied to astronomy. And VOILA - sequence A000040 in the OEIS. Well, I’ll be a missile aiming monkey,”