I studied a little number theory. This is bizarre.
Originally shared by Brad Murray (halfjack)
Random distribution of primes turns out to be a different kind of random than originally expected!
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160313-mathematicians-discover-prime-conspiracy/?utm_campaign=Contact+SNS+For+More+Referrer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=snsanalytics
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That is fascinating and suggests that there is a pattern under there that we still know nothing about (which I guess is good news for eventually figuring out how to generate arbitrary primes).
ReplyDeleteThe fun about "discoveries" in number theory is that they're very unlike discoveries in science. In science, there are facts we have not yet observed ... in number theory all the facts are laid out in front of you at the very beginning. It's considering the implications that gets startling.
ReplyDeleteTony Lower-Basch Some things, like this, don't seem to follow from the premises at all. And yet, they must.
ReplyDeleteThat's startling. Its always startling; like it is startling that some infinites are bigger than each other.
Eva Schiffer Yeah! I don't (yet) pretend to understand this. I am hopeful I will be able to pretend someday soon.
ReplyDeleteWilliam: I don't know whether I'm startled by the breaking of my vague intuition that primes should be randomly distributed, or by being forced to question why I ever guessed that in the first place. It doesn't take much of a mental head-tilt to look at the question and say "It would be intensely strange if this pattern of numbers obeyed the rules for random noise."
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