math facts

Ruth-Aaron Pair

Ruth-Aaron pair consists of consecutive numbers such that the sum of their prime factors are equal.

grayscale photo of man in baseball uniform standing on field

Ruth and Aaron are baseball players. Aaron scored 715 home runs and broke the previous record of 714 home runs held by Ruth.

The name Ruth-Aaron pair was given by Carl Pomerance. It was first noticed and solved by his colleague’s student.

The prime factors of 715 and 714 are as follows,

715 = 2 X 3 X 7 X 17

714 = 5 X 11 X 13

The sum of the prime factors of both the numbers is 29 respectively.

The mathematicians Carl Pomerance and his colleagues Carol Nelson and David.E.Penny tried to find more Ruth-Aaron pairs, Some of the few examples are given below

  1. 5 and 6

5 = 5

6 = 2 X 3

2. 8 and 9

8 = 2 X 2 X 2

9 = 3 X 3

3. 15 and 16

15 = 3 X 5

16 = 2 X 2 X 2 X 2

4. 77 and 78

77 = 7 X 11

78 = 2 X 3 X 13

5. 714 and 715

715 = 2 X 3 X 7 X 17

714 = 5 X 11 X 13

Goldbach’s Conjecture

Goldbach’s conjecture is one of the oldest unsolved problems in mathematics.


Any even number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime number.

Every odd whole number greater than 5 can be written as the sum of three primes. 

Goldbach’s conjectures

Goldbach, a Prussian mathematician(1690-1764)

On 7 June 1742, Goldbach wrote a letter to the mathematician Euler in which he proposed the conjectures he found.

Euler responded back on 30 June 1742 as

Every integer greater than 2 is a sum of two primes, I regard this as a completely certain theorem, although I cannot prove it.

Euler

Though the Goldbach’s conjecture looks simple to understand, it has not yet been proved.

In the modern times, the conjectures proposed by Goldbach is identified as weak or strong Goldbach conjecture.

STRONG GOLDBACH CONJECTURE

Any even whole number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime number.

WEAK GOLDBACH CONJECTURE

Every odd whole number greater than 5 can be written as the sum of three primes. 

In 2013, Harold Helfgott, a Peruvian mathematician released two papers claiming the proof of Goldbach weak conjecture and The proof was accepted for publication in the Annals of mathematics series in 2015, and has been undergoing further review and revisions.

In March 2000 the publishers of the book ‘Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s conjecture (Bloomberg in the USA and Faber and Faber in the UK) offered a prize of one million dollars for anyone who could prove the Goldbach’s conjecture

Any even whole number greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime number.

The prize was kept open for two years, but nobody claimed it.

Odd(number) Fact

A cool fact about odd numbers.

Narcissistic number

Interesting name, isn’t it?

How can a number be narcissistic?

☻When it focuses too much on itself☺.

It will represent itself even after some manipulation of its digits.

“A number is said to be narcissistic if the sum of its own digits each raised to the power of the number of digits is equal to itself”

For example:

153=13 + 53 + 33 = 153.

These numbers are also called as Armstrong numbers or plus perfect numbers.

The following video has some details about this…

Narcissistic number

Blaise Pascal

Yesterday was the birth anniversary of the famous French Mathematician Blaise Pascal(18-6-1623 to 19 -8-1662). He is a child prodigy with no formal education.

He invented the mechanical calculator at a very young age.

He is the first person who proposed the idea of public transportation in 1662 in France. He introduced the seven horse drawn carriage routes for the public. They are called as the “Five-Penny Coaches,” or “Carosses à Cinq Sous”.

In science, his focus was mainly on fluid dynamics.

The following video explains his other achievements

Blaise Pascal

NO NOBEL FOR MATH

This is probably because Alfred Nobel who created the awards did not consider mathematics to be as practical as physics chemistry or medicine.

ONE THOUSAND FACTS