Posted on 03/14/2016 5:28:27 PM PDT by MtnClimber
A previously unnoticed property of prime numbers seems to violate a longstanding assumption about how they behave.
o mathematicians have uncovered a simple, previously unnoticed property of prime numbers — those numbers that are divisible only by 1 and themselves. Prime numbers, it seems, have decided preferences about the final digits of the primes that immediately follow them.
Among the first billion prime numbers, for instance, a prime ending in 9 is almost 65 percent more likely to be followed by a prime ending in 1 than another prime ending in 9. In a paper posted online today, Kannan Soundararajan and Robert Lemke Oliver of Stanford University present both numerical and theoretical evidence that prime numbers repel other would-be primes that end in the same digit, and have varied predilections for being followed by primes ending in the other possible final digits.
“We’ve been studying primes for a long time, and no one spotted this before,” said Andrew Granville, a number theorist at the University of Montreal and University College London. “It’s crazy.”
The discovery is the exact opposite of what most mathematicians would have predicted, said Ken Ono, a number theorist at Emory University in Atlanta. When he first heard the news, he said, “I was floored. I thought, ‘For sure, your program’s not working.’”
This conspiracy among prime numbers seems, at first glance, to violate a longstanding assumption in number theory: that prime numbers behave much like random numbers. Most mathematicians would have assumed, Granville and Ono agreed, that a prime should have an equal chance of being followed by a prime ending in 1, 3, 7 or 9 (the four possible endings for all prime numbers except 2 and 5).
(Excerpt) Read more at quantamagazine.org ...
Yes, you are right. They are used in Public Key/Private Key encryption Used for secure internet encrypted links.
They must think they are very special that they shouldn’t put up with a little teasing now and then.
I try to post articles like this for the same reason. I am an electrical engineer, but a real physics, math and science geek. Oh, sports cars too.
I try to post articles like this for the same reason. I am an electrical engineer, but a real physics, math and science geek. Oh, sports cars too.
Sad, really. Glad somebody has confirmed his idea, though.
Realtors come across prime properties all the time - what’s the big deal?
They both said that at the same time, laughed, and became best friends because they had that in common.
Then they discussed prime numbers.
Well in real life, he is. That was my funny twist.
I like yours though.
LOL, he is? I never saw him before, I don’t think.
I prefer having sex with women.
Yup. Gay as Gay Gayerson of Las Gaygas.
Surprising this was not found sooner.
...
It’s such a simple assumption, but you know what they say about assuming.
Eye can see that. Better than being burned at the steak.
For some reason this reminds me of the Monty Hall problem.
I’m underwhelmed.
Just because this is a “statistical” anomaly, who’s to say there isn’t a black swan in the first billion prime numbers?
The second billion prime numbers will probably restore some statistical “order” to the “randomness.”
However, this discovery was unexpected! ;-)
Well alrighty then!
"Minutus Cantorum
Minutus Balorum
Minutus Carborata
Descendum Pantorum!"
I always wondered how you keep beating those UAs.
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