Simple Formula Makes Prime Numbers Easy, but a Million-Dollar Mystery Remains
www.scientificamerican.com
A generator equation can spit out many prime numbers, but it leaves important mathematical questions unanswered
  • dicknipples@sh.itjust.works
    9·
    11 个月前

    TLDR: we have a “simple” formula that finds prime numbers but it’s not very efficient and becomes prohibitively expensive to compute for large numbers. Come up with a more efficient algorithm and you could claim the million dollar prize.

  • Knusper@feddit.de
    3·
    11 个月前

    Does this mean this formula can calculate prime numbers without finding all smaller primes (as the Sieve of Erastothenes does)? Or is that somehow just implicitly done with all the factorials and sums and whatnot?

    • yewler
      1·
      8 个月前

      It’s a Sieve of Eratosthsenes in disguise. It’s pretty clever from what I remember, but I don’t recall all the details.