Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Prime Numbers Always Intrigue

In 1968, a Russian mathematician conjectured that, on average, the number of prime numbers for which the sum of their digits was even was equal to the number of prime numbers for which that sum was odd.

The conjecture has now been proven true, by French mathematicians:

http://www.physorg.com/news192907929.html

Can't honestly say I understand what the significance of the finding is 8-\ but the article concludes thusly:
"The methods employed to arrive at this result, derived from combinatorial mathematics, the analytical theory of numbers and harmonic analysis, are highly groundbreaking and should pave the way to the resolution of other difficult questions concerning the representation of certain sequences of integers.
Quite apart from their theoretical interest, these questions are directly linked to the construction of sequences of pseudo-random numbers and have important applications in digital simulation and cryptography."
Pretty much any proof that involves prime numbers has a lot of potential consequences...

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