idea

Gödel numbering: where primes come in

The recipe for the big number uses primes. For a row of symbols with codes a, b, c you compute 2^a × 3^b × 5^c, and so on along the row.

Every number breaks into primes in only one way, so you can always decode it back to the exact statement.

Connects to

• numbering trick
• the sentence
• Skolem, only ×
• primes: provable

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Gödel numbering