Primes not Sum of or Difference between Powers of 2 and 3/Mistake

Source Work

1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.):

The Dictionary

$53$

Mistake

[$53$ is] The smallest prime which is not the difference between powers of $2$ and $3$. The sequence of such primes continues: $71 \quad 103 \quad 107 \quad 109 \quad 149 \quad 151 \ldots$

Correction

This should read:

[$53$ is] The smallest prime which is neither the sum of nor difference between powers of $2$ and $3$. The sequence of such primes continues: $71 \quad 103 \quad 107 \quad 109 \quad 149 \quad 151 \ldots$

We note that $43 = 2^5 + 3^2$ but cannot be expressed as the difference between powers of $2$ and $3$.

Sources

• 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $53$