From cnn: For many people, prime numbers have faded into the background since distant grade school days. However, for Luke Durant, a 36-year-old former Nvidia programmer, prime numbers became an all-consuming passion. He devoted nearly one year and invested a considerable sum of his own money to uncover the world’s largest known prime number. A prime […]
It is only a short exchange is a rather long novel, but noteworthy – from page 134 in “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towels. It might lead you down a rabbit hole to discover if Amor is mathematically inclined. Meanwhile, here is the extract: “Here,” he said in the tone of one chipping in. […]
Every four years, the International Mathematical Union awards a gold coin with the head of Archimedes engraved on it to up to four mathematicians younger than 40 “to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement.” This year the Fields Medal went to June Huh, James Maynard, Maryna Viazovska […]
This is a ‘No Post’ today. Just to explain… I have two main blogs, a wife and 3 children and 5 grandchildren and my novel #2 to get published (when I find a keen agent). This is why my posts are not as regular as they might be. However, to the observant mathematician, you will […]
Two academics have shocked themselves and the world of mathematics by discovering a pattern in prime numbers. Primes – numbers greater than 1 that are divisible only by themselves and 1 – are considered the ‘building blocks’ of mathematics, because every number is either a prime or can be built by multiplying primes together – (84, […]
So, in relation to my last post, here is a puzzle that appeared in a Simpsons Episode – centered on baseball. Can you figure out the attendance at this game? For a complete explanation, check out this 12min video here.
These talented young dancers are doing a routine for a judge – who will score them using their numbers. Above them are two more numbers, making the sequence 5, 7, 2, 5 or (top to bottom) 7, 5, 5, 2. My students enjoyed coming into class and, when seeing four numbers on the board, trying […]
Prime numbers are cool. As Carl Sagan points out so eloquently in the novel Contact, there’s a certain importance to their status as the most fundamental building block of all numbers, which are themselves the building blocks of our understanding of the universe. Whether it’s communicating your credit card information to Amazon, logging into your […]
As the new year approaches, you may be (or not be) interested to learn that the largest known prime number is 274,207,281– 1. This number is an incredible 22 million digits long and 5 million digits longer than the second largest prime number. Hang on to your primes you might ask, “Why are prime numbers important? […]
A few years ago an old school textbook that H3 used explained that 1 was not a prime number “because of the Liquorice Factory”! The attached pdf is a great worksheet for students (and other readers of this blog) to examine the kind of machines that we need in order to produce liquorice in lengths […]
