# primes in the trick

**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 2a × 3b × 5c, 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](https://mapideas.org/i/th_num)
- [the sentence](https://mapideas.org/i/th_sent)
- [Skolem, only ×](https://mapideas.org/i/s_skolem)
- [primes: provable](https://mapideas.org/i/s_primes)

Sources:
- [Wikipedia: Gödel numbering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del_numbering)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/th_primes · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#th_primes