Tagged Questions
18
votes
3answers
1k views
Yitang Zhang: Prime Gaps
Has anybody read Yitang Zhang's paper on prime gaps? Wired reports "$70$ million" at most, but I was wondering if the number was actually more specific.
EDIT$^1$:
Are there any experts here who can ...
2
votes
2answers
373 views
Can somebody simply explain Wilson's theorem (for a 13 year old)
I am Rohan Kapur. This is my first time posting on the Mathematics site, although I am quite active on StackOverflow, the programming site.
I am doing a Islamic Maths assignment at the moment for ...
6
votes
5answers
1k views
Why do we consider prime numbers important, and what are their applications other than number theory in pure math?
Why do we consider prime numbers important, and what are their applications other than number theory in pure math? I know that Number theory is devoted to studying prime numbers, but there must be ...
29
votes
4answers
1k views
Could G. H. Hardy make a product of two primes so big he couldn't find out which?
This question of course began as a slightly irreverent play on the riddle, "Can God make a stone so big He can't lift it?" Then I wondered about the answer.
Is it possible to exhibit a number that is ...
21
votes
2answers
785 views
Did H. Lebesgue claim “1 is prime” in 1899? Source?
John Derbyshire, in his text "Prime obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the greatest unsolved problem in mathematics" states that
The last mathematician of any importance who did [consider the number ...
3
votes
2answers
401 views
When was the last prime number discovered? [closed]
By last, I mean the most recently discovered prime number.
What was the length of time between the discovery of the last two prime numbers?
