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Major Advance Towards a Proof of the Twin Prime Conjecture

ananyo writes "Researchers hoping to get '2' as the answer for a long-sought proof involving pairs of prime numbers are celebrating the fact that a mathematician has wrestled the value down from infinity to 70 million. That goal is the proof to a conjecture concerning prime numbers. Primes abound among smaller numbers, but they become less and less frequent as one goes towards larger numbers. But exceptions exist: the 'twin primes,' which are pairs of prime numbers that differ in value by 2. The twin prime conjecture says that there is an infinite number of such twin pairs. Some attribute the conjecture to the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, which would make it one of the oldest open problems in mathematics. The new result, from Yitang Zhang of the University of New Hampshire in Durham, finds that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that are less than 70 million units apart. He presented his research on 13 May to an audience of a few dozen at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although 70 million seems like a very large number, the existence of any finite bound, no matter how large, means that that the gaps between consecutive numbers don't keep growing forever."

6 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. '2' - wrong, its 42 by nri · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    everyone knows the answer is 42

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    if :w! doesn't work, try :!cvs commit -m""
  2. Re:Preprints not avaiable, but it seems legitimate by boundary · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Truncate your search by looking in the mirror.

  3. Re:Gaps between numbers... by MadKeithV · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Traditionally, when you're joking you should write something that's funny.

    Thank you mods for modding this comment funny.

  4. Re:Gaps between numbers... by Barryke · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Traditionally, when you're joking you should write something that's funny.

    Let me demonstrate.
      "You want me to fix your toaster? Hold it firmly and run hot water over it, while putting its plug in the power outlet."
    This is only funny if you get it.

    Humor is suggesting a (absurd yet understandable) relation between unlikely things.

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  5. Cool Louis Vuitton Samsung Galaxy S4 Case by asoofai · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The Louis Vuitton Samsung Galaxy S4 Case is authorized, and the customer signs the screen with their finger to get the coupons to order the product with a discounted price. The receipt can be delivered by e-mail or text message, and goes out immediately. Each case is tagged with the location of the purpose. The whole process takes only a few seconds. This product is put under the Designer Samsung Galaxy S4 Cases category, where you can find a lot of cases and covers for smart phones and digital devices.

  6. Re:First? by Chrisq · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    good to know that while the country is almost 17 trillion in debt that such important endeavors take priority

    What do you mean - they can now say "17 trillion dollars in debt is close to two dollars in debt when you consider infinity, the mathematicians say so!"