Marcus du Sautoy

The Music of the Primes

1. IDEA 1

   Primes hide a deep pattern

   Du Sautoy tells the story of prime numbers, numbers divisible only by one and themselves. Mathematicians have long searched for a pattern in how they are scattered among other numbers.

2. IDEA 2

   Gauss found a rough rule

   Du Sautoy describes how Carl Friedrich Gauss, as a teenager, noticed a rule that estimates how many primes lie below a given number. It was remarkably accurate. It suggested that primes follow a hidden order, not pure chance.

3. IDEA 3

   Riemann made a famous guess

   Du Sautoy describes Bernhard Riemann's hypothesis about the zeros of a special function. If true, it would explain the pattern of the primes. Nobody has found a proof, but it has guided mathematicians for over a century.

All 8 ideas from The Music of the Primes →