Prime Numbers Visualized!

  On 12/14/2009 at 3:59 AM, OneToThirtySix said:

  On 12/14/2009 at 3:04 AM, kaini said:

what really infuriates pure mathematicians is that despite the many theories and formulae which spit out primes at varying speeds (computationally speaking), we are incomplete - in the kurt godel sense. in other words we don't know if any theory - or even the sum of all our theories - will spit out every prime. worse again, we don't even know if they won't.

I thought there was a simple formula for defining prime numbers, like doubling a prime and adding one. Or am I thinking of some other formula?

you are thinking about the proof that there are infinite prime numbers

  On 12/14/2009 at 3:56 AM, kaini said:

when they introduce you to aleph infinites it's like getting past thethan level 3 in scientology. allegedly.

nah it's cool and all but pretty basic stuff.

If I was in this field Id say Id end up jumping off a cliff. You spend ages trying to find more of what may be infinite.

You discovered another prime? Good, now do it again!

24 is the highest number, what the fuck is this shit

i quite like the proof of infinite primes though, it's very tidy. if i remember correctly, you assume there are a finite group of primes, you take the sum and add 1, and immediately that number is either a new prime or has a new prime factor. repeat ad infinitum.

  On 12/14/2009 at 2:30 PM, Fred McGriff said:

24 is the highest number, what the fuck is this shit

i think you'll find that yr post count is the highest number ever discovered.....

who cares, it looks cool

  On 12/14/2009 at 2:03 AM, chassis said:

Oooh pretty.

How much do they give you if you discover a new prime? I heard it was something good.

  On 12/14/2009 at 2:34 PM, margaret thatcher said:

i quite like the proof of infinite primes though, it's very tidy. if i remember correctly, you assume there are a finite group of primes, you take the sum and add 1, and immediately that number is either a new prime or has a new prime factor. repeat ad infinitum.

You need to multiply 'em instead of adding them. This proof owes its tidiness to the fundamental theorem of arithmetic though.

yeah, i bollocksed that one up. been a while since i had to recall it.