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Prime numbers are the atoms of arithmetic,
the building blocks for all other numbers. In school, we
are taught that a prime is one that cannot be divided evenly
by any other number except one and itself. What we are not
taught is that primes represent the most tantalizing mystery
in the pursuit of human knowledge. How can one predict when
the next prime number will occur? Is there a formula that
could generate primes? Where is the pattern behind these
elusive numbers? These questions have formed a riddle that
has confounded mathematicians since the ancient Greeks.
The answer would revolutionize the world of math, and much
more.
Nearly 150 years ago, a German mathematician
named Bernard Riemann came as close as anyone has ever come
to solving this problem. In 1859 he presented a paper on
the subject of prime numbers to the Berlin Academy. At the
heart of his presentation was an idea -- a hypothesis --
that seemed to reveal a magical harmony between primes and
other numbers. It was an idea that Riemann argued was very
likely to be true. But after his death, his housekeeper
burned all of his personal papers, and to this day, no one
knows whether he ever found the proof.
By now, the Riemann Hypothesis has become
the number one obsession of the world's leading mathematicians.
Considered to be even more difficult and more important
than Fermat's Last Theorem, Riemann's solution would serve
as a periodic table in charting the entire mathematical
universe. But it has implications that go far beyond math.
It is of tremendous importance in business, since prime
numbers are the linchpin for security in banking and e-commerce.
It is also the idea that brings together vastly different
areas of science, with critical ramifications for Quantum
Mechanics, Chaos Theory, and the future of computing. Pioneers
in each of these fields are racing to crack the code, and
a prize of one million dollars has been offered to the winner.
In this remarkable book, Marcus du Sautoy
tells a story of eccentric and brilliant men, and of the
unquenchable thirst for knowledge that has driven some to
madness and others to glory. Illuminating, authoritative,
and extremely engaging, The Music of the Primes provides
the extraordinary history behind the holy grail of mathematics
and the ongoing quest to capture it.
Marcus du Sautoy is a professor of mathematics
at the University of Oxford and a research fellow at the
Royal Society. A frequent contributor on mathematics in
The Times and BBC Radio, he lives in London.
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