# Maximal Prime Gap

I found this article discussing the upper and lower bounds for the number of primes less than x. In this article this equation was given.

$$\frac{n}{\log n}\left(1+\frac{0.992}{\log n}\right) < \pi(n) <\frac{n}{\log n}\left(1+\frac{1.2762}{\log n}\right)$$

with $$\pi(n)$$ the actual number of primes less than $$n$$.

I thought that since $$\pi(n+a)-\pi(n)=1$$; Where a is the gap between the nth prime and the $$(n+1)$$th prime

$$\frac{n + g}{\log (n + g)}\left(1+\frac{1.2762}{\log (n + g)}\right)-\frac{n}{\log n}\left(1+\frac{0.992}{\log n}\right)=1$$

Where $$g$$ is the upper bound of the gap between the nth prime and the (n+1)th prime.

Am I missing anything or is this true?

here is the article https://primes.utm.edu/howmany.html

• If you meant to write $\ge 1$ instead of $=1$ then yes it could be derived in that way. – quid Oct 27 '15 at 1:11
• Careful: when you say $(1 + 0.992)/\log n$, you mean $1 + (0.992/\log n)$, and similarly for $1.2762$. The prime number theorem says that $\pi(n)$ is approximately $n/\log n$, and this would be false with the extra $\log n$ in the denominators. – Ravi Fernando Oct 27 '15 at 6:52
• Agree with @Ravi. The inequalities in the first displayed line did not make any sense the way the earlier editors had bungled it up. – Jyrki Lahtonen Jan 8 at 13:55
• In the formula $n$ is not the number of the $n$th prime. It seems to me you are mixing the two? – maxmilgram Jan 8 at 15:27

In order to understand the problem you have set up, we need to look at the number of primes at a maximal prime gap and think about how many primes can fit in this space. For example, at $n=113$ a maximal prime gap of $14$ occurs. This means gaps less than 14 can also occur. So, the count of primes in a range like $\pi(n+a)-\pi(n)=1$ like at this maximal it $a$ has to be greater than or equal $14$ at $n$ in order to count it. But, this also means one will count more than one prime in this same size range nearby (where say twin primes are). Look at $n=99$ and a gap of 14: 101, 103, 107, 109, and 113 are all prime. This all means that you need an inequality, $\pi(n+a)-\pi(n) \ge 1$ when $a$ is greater than the maximal gap at $n$. The statement above with Ravi needs to be taken into account before going on. But, it is easy to see that you only get approximate numbers, not exact numbers.