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Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math
A fascinating journey into the mind-bending world of prime numbers
Cicadas of the genus Magicicada appear once every 7, 13, or 17 years. Is it just a coincidence that these are all prime numbers? How do twin primes differ from cousin primes, and what on earth (or in the mind of a mathematician) could be sexy about prime numbers? What did Albert Wilansky find so fascinating about his brother-in-law's phone number?
Mathematicians have been asking questions about prime numbers for more than twenty-five centuries, and every answer seems to generate a new rash of questions. In Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math, you'll meet the world's most gifted mathematicians, from Pythagoras and Euclid to Fermat, Gauss, and Erd?o?s, and you'll discover a host of unique insights and inventive conjectures that have both enlarged our understanding and deepened the mystique of prime numbers. This comprehensive, A-to-Z guide covers everything you ever wanted to know--and much more that you never suspected--about prime numbers, including:
* The unproven Riemann hypothesis and the power of the zeta function
* The "Primes is in P" algorithm
* The sieve of Eratosthenes of Cyrene
* Fermat and Fibonacci numbers
* The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
* And much, much more
Cicadas of the genus Magicicada appear once every 7, 13, or 17 years. Is it just a coincidence that these are all prime numbers? How do twin primes differ from cousin primes, and what on earth (or in the mind of a mathematician) could be sexy about prime numbers? What did Albert Wilansky find so fascinating about his brother-in-law's phone number?
Mathematicians have been asking questions about prime numbers for more than twenty-five centuries, and every answer seems to generate a new rash of questions. In Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math, you'll meet the world's most gifted mathematicians, from Pythagoras and Euclid to Fermat, Gauss, and Erd?o?s, and you'll discover a host of unique insights and inventive conjectures that have both enlarged our understanding and deepened the mystique of prime numbers. This comprehensive, A-to-Z guide covers everything you ever wanted to know--and much more that you never suspected--about prime numbers, including:
* The unproven Riemann hypothesis and the power of the zeta function
* The "Primes is in P" algorithm
* The sieve of Eratosthenes of Cyrene
* Fermat and Fibonacci numbers
* The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
* And much, much more
272 pages, Hardcover
First published April 30, 2005
18 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
David G. Wells
26 books10 followersDavid Wells is a writer on mathematics and puzzles.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 6, 2020
Book at Bedtime
An encyclopaedia of everything there is to know about prime numbers. Or, better yet, a kind of mathematical tabloid newspaper that provides short random stories about events in which you had no interest before reading the headline. It is certainly neither a textbook nor an introductory popularisation of the subject. Nevertheless, with persistence it is likely that one could teach oneself a large part of number theory just by following rhe internal references. A book, therefore, to be dipped into and slowly consumed an article at a time. Also a book which reveals, because of its encyclopaedic organisation, much of the psyche of the mathematician - particularly his or her devotion to numbers as living things, which of course they are.
An encyclopaedia of everything there is to know about prime numbers. Or, better yet, a kind of mathematical tabloid newspaper that provides short random stories about events in which you had no interest before reading the headline. It is certainly neither a textbook nor an introductory popularisation of the subject. Nevertheless, with persistence it is likely that one could teach oneself a large part of number theory just by following rhe internal references. A book, therefore, to be dipped into and slowly consumed an article at a time. Also a book which reveals, because of its encyclopaedic organisation, much of the psyche of the mathematician - particularly his or her devotion to numbers as living things, which of course they are.
July 18, 2022
I am much too under-educated to follow the information in this book, and that's my fault. I'm the one who chose to read Moby-Dick in junior high math class and all subsequent years.
After making this choice decades ago and a little hard thinking, I realized that people, including me, who say they learned nothing in school mean that they weren't paying attention or were actively being destroyed by circumstances beyond school.
So I am abandoning this book, sadly and with regret.
Still, I am, however, fascinated, as are so many, by prime numbers, and often, I trace primes as high as possible before I fall asleep at night. I don't fall asleep because prime numbers are boring; I fall asleep because primes absorb my attention so fully that every other distraction disappears, and sleep arrives.
Why four stars? If you have some solid experience and knowledge in math and want to know more about primes, this may be the book for you. The sentences are straight-forward, and statements are clear, so if you are prepared, take a look.
Also, hey, David, thanks for the opportunity.
After making this choice decades ago and a little hard thinking, I realized that people, including me, who say they learned nothing in school mean that they weren't paying attention or were actively being destroyed by circumstances beyond school.
So I am abandoning this book, sadly and with regret.
Still, I am, however, fascinated, as are so many, by prime numbers, and often, I trace primes as high as possible before I fall asleep at night. I don't fall asleep because prime numbers are boring; I fall asleep because primes absorb my attention so fully that every other distraction disappears, and sleep arrives.
Why four stars? If you have some solid experience and knowledge in math and want to know more about primes, this may be the book for you. The sentences are straight-forward, and statements are clear, so if you are prepared, take a look.
Also, hey, David, thanks for the opportunity.
June 23, 2019
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
December 29, 2020
Cheating a bit in marking it as "read". Have you ever "read" a dictionary, or an encyclopedia? The layout of entries in alphabetical orders definitely puts this book in the realm of reference material. Never before have I encountered "sympathetic numbers", "amicable pairs" and other "jumping champions". I wasn't really looking for them, but I'll make sure I check for them from time to time.
However, a reminder of Euler's quadratic formula and the discovery of Ulam's spiral were just what I needed at the time...
If you're curious about numbers, patterns, formal maths and other interesting constructions, this is a good book to have on your shelf.
However, a reminder of Euler's quadratic formula and the discovery of Ulam's spiral were just what I needed at the time...
If you're curious about numbers, patterns, formal maths and other interesting constructions, this is a good book to have on your shelf.
April 1, 2020
Unreadable, absent infinite enthusiasm for mathematical patterns in numbers. There is no narrative thread, only concepts and conjectures and theorems presented in alphabetical order. I feel a glimmer of fascination, but for me to properly appreciate each concept or conjecture or theorem would require more time than I have (in the absolute sense) left.
I miss Isaac Asimov.
Recommended as a good quick read for John Von Neumann.
I miss Isaac Asimov.
Recommended as a good quick read for John Von Neumann.
December 23, 2022
Lots of typos.
Page 60: "Since the sum of the reciprocals of the prime numbers converges, ..."
This is false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverge...
Presenting the topics in alphabetical order, rather than in historical order or as needed to explain thoroughly some topic, makes the book less cohesive. There is no need to do this; an index *IS* an alphabetical list of topics in the text.
Page 60: "Since the sum of the reciprocals of the prime numbers converges, ..."
This is false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diverge...
Presenting the topics in alphabetical order, rather than in historical order or as needed to explain thoroughly some topic, makes the book less cohesive. There is no need to do this; an index *IS* an alphabetical list of topics in the text.
August 23, 2007
This one is just okay. It has a lot of definitions of math concepts related to primes without really going into any significant depth. Also the author seems vehemently opposed to recreational math or playing with numbers just for fun. Seems like a pretty uptight dude. If you like this book, you should check out the prime numbers that are in the book, Red Zen. That is the first novel I've ever seen that includes genuine math concepts in really fun ways. The author actually spells out 'Red Zen' in a block of digits in the book, which turns out to be a legitimate prime number! Other fun numbers are also listed other than simply primes. Red Zen. I would buy that book before I bought this one. You bet.
April 16, 2016
A sort of dictionary of concepts and people related to prime numbers. The articles range from simple and easy to comprehend to very difficult. It's a survey of what's known about prime numbers and the parts that were within my reach were fascinating. Good popular science writing is difficult to achieve and good popular mathematics writing is very difficult and I give the author credit for a good book.
April 25, 2011
I kind of got put off this book by the complicated introduction, but once the book started I found it very interesting and I now know some unusual facts about prime numbers.
September 14, 2011
For one who didn't quite understand the book, it is one fascinating read.
Read
January 16, 2019An encyclopedia of prime numbers, essentially, with short articles about each one listed A to Z. Useful as resource / reference but not really readable unless you're already pretty invested in this area or you are the type with the patience to read encyclopedias. (To be fair though, this is a relatively short encyclopedia.)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews