Re: loose ends

From: George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Date: Sun Aug 03 2003 - 14:03:47 EDT

  • Next message: Glenn Morton: "RE: loose ends"

    Glenn Morton wrote:
    >
    > >-----Original Message-----
    > >From: George Murphy [mailto:gmurphy@raex.com]
    > >Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 9:04 PM
    > >To: Glenn Morton
    >
    > > There is a basic difference between the Fibonacci sequence
    > >& the primes. As you
    > >note, there is a formula with which one can generate as many
    > >members of the 1st sequence
    > >as you wish. But there is no general formula for generating
    > >primes (unless there's been
    > >a new discovery I haven't heard of, a possibility since I'm hardly
    > >a number theorist).
    > >All proposed prime-generating formulas have been found to break
    > >down at some point.
    >
    > It isn't a new discovery but an old one, about 2500 years old. It is called
    > the Primes Sieve of Eratosthenes. Given enough time, it will generate the
    > entire list of primes. But that is the catch. It takes too much time.
    >
    > Look it up on the internet.

            Don't need to - I learned about it from Gamow's _One, Two, Three ... Infinity_
    when I was about 14. It isn't a prime-generating formula but a device for
    systematically checking to see if numbers are prime. By a proposed prime-generating
    formula I mean something like
            f(n) = n^2 - n + 41
    which gives primes for n = 1, 2, ... 40 but for n = 41 gives a perfect square.

                                                    Shalom,
                                                    George

    George L. Murphy
    gmurphy@raex.com
    http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/



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