The Music of the Primes
Professor Marcus du Sautoy, author of the The Music of the Primes, will discuss the mystery of prime numbers, the history behind the Riemann hypothesis and the ongoing quest to solve it.
Why did Beckham choose the number 23 shirt? How is 17 the key to the evolutionary survival of a strange species of cicada? Prime numbers are the atoms of arithmetic - the hydrogen and oxygen of the world of numbers. Despite their fundamental importance to mathematics, they represent one of the most tantalizing enigmas in the pursuit of human knowledge. In 1859, the German mathematician Bernhard Riemann put forward an idea - a hypothesis - that seemed to reveal a magical harmony at work in the numerical landscape.
A million dollars now await the person who can unravel the mystery of the hidden music that might explain the cacophony of the primes.
| The Music of the Primes |
| Related Links |
| Primes and Equations Professor Richard Taylor introduces prime numbers and congruences and illustrates their connection to Diophantine equations. |
| Fermat's Last Theorem A story about a mathematician, Andrew Wiles, who struggled to prove the Fermat's Last Theorem and at last succeeded in proving it. |
| The Story of Maths This is a BBC documentary series written and presented by Professor Marcus du Sautoy, outlining aspects of the history of mathematics. |
| The Code This is a BBC documentary series presented by Professor Marcus du Sautoy, revealing a hidden numerical code that underpins all nature. |