prime number distribution
The Riemann Hypothesis is probably the hardest unsolved problem in all of mathematics, and one of the most important. It has to do with prime numbers - the building blocks of arithmetic. Nick Mee, together with Sir Arthur C. Clarke, tells us about the patterns hiding inside numbers.
In the first of our tenth birthday year issues, Plus is celebrating the very best that maths has to offer. If you've ever wanted to fly with the birds and swim with the fishes, get the inside knowledge on great London landmarks or just enjoy going to the movies, then this is the issue for you. And we also say happy birthday to the great mathematician Leonard Euler.
The prime numbers are the atoms amongst the integers, and while we know that there are infinitely many of them, there's no general formula that generates them all. Julian Havil looks at a little-known algorithm that sieves out all primes up to a given number, and which is astonishing in its simplicity.
