The Oldest Unsolved Problem in Math
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Published 2024-03-07
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A massive thank you to Prof. Pace Nielsen for all his time and help with this video.
A big thank you to Dr. Asaf Karagila, Pascal Ochem, Prof. Tianxin Cai, and Prof. William Dunham for their expertise and help.
To try GIMPS out yourself: ve42.co/GIMPS
These sources were particularly helpful:
Perfect numbers via MacTutor - ve42.co/MTPerfect
Cai, T. (2022). Perfect numbers and fibonacci sequences. World Scientific. - ve42.co/Cai2022
Dunham, W. (2022). Euler: The master of us all (Vol. 22). American Mathematical Society. - ve42.co/Dunham2022
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References:
• Perfect Numbers and Mersenne Primes -...
• Perfect Number Proof - Numberphile
Dickson, L. E. (1919). History of the Theory of Numbers.. (Vol. 1). Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Knill, O. (2007). The oldest open problem in mathematics. NEU Math Circle, December2. - ve42.co/Knill2007
Perfect number via Wikipedia - ve42.co/WikiPerfect
Introduction to Arithmetic via HalthiTrust - ve42.co/IntroArithmetic
Nicomachus of Gerasa via MacTutor - ve42.co/MTNicomachus
Sonja, B. (1988). The First Perfect Numbers and Three Types of Amicable Numbers in a Manuscript on Elementary Number Theory by Ibn Fellûs. Erdem, c. IV, 11. - ve42.co/Sonja1988
Ibn Fallus via Wikipedia - ve42.co/WikiFallus
Mersenne prime via Wikipedia - ve42.co/WikiMP
List of Known Mersenne Prime Numbers - ve42.co/ListOfMP
Marin Mersenne via MacTutor - ve42.co/MTMersenne
Leonhard Euler via Wikipedia - ve42.co/WikiEuler
Frank Nelson Cole via Wikipedia - ve42.co/WikiFNCole
GIMPS History via Mersenne.org - ve42.co/GIMPSHistory
EFF Cooperative Computing Awards via EFF - ve42.co/EFFAwards
Jonathan Pace via Primewiki - ve42.co/PWikiPace
Book with just one number sells out in Japan via BastillePost - ve42.co/PrimeBook
Predicted distribution of Mersenne primes via John D. Cook - ve42.co/JDCookMP
Euler’s Odd Perfect Numbers Theorem via Cantor's Paradise - ve42.co/EulerOPN
A Perfect (Math) Mystery via Medium - ve42.co/Machado2024
Brent, R. P., Cohen, G. L., & te Riele, H. J. (1991). Improved techniques for lower bounds for odd perfect numbers. Mathematics of Computation, 57(196), 857-868. - ve42.co/Brent1991
Ochem, P., & Rao, M. (2012). Odd perfect numbers are greater than 10¹⁵⁰⁰. Mathematics of Computation, 81(279), 1869-1877. - ve42.co/Ochem2012
Mathematicians Open a New Front on an Ancient Number Problem via Quantamagazine - ve42.co/QuantaSpoofs
Descartes number via Wikipedia - ve42.co/WikiDescartesNumber
Andersen, N., Durham, S., Griffin, M. J., Hales, J., Jenkins, P., Keck, R., ... & Wu, D. (2022). Odd, spoof perfect factorizations. Journal of Number Theory, 234, 31-47. - ve42.co/Andersen2022
Pomerance’s Heuristic that Odd Perfect Numbers are Unlikely via OddPerfect.org - ve42.co/Heuristic
Images & Video:
Clip of Piergiorgio Odifreddi - • Odifreddi da Gramellini: piccola lezi...
Euclid’s Elements 1 via Claymath - ve42.co/CM1
Euclid’s Elements 2 via Claymath - ve42.co/CM2
Euclid’s Elements 3 via Claymath - ve42.co/CM3
Diophanti - ve42.co/Diophanti
Gauss book - ve42.co/GaussDis
Euler’s Archive 1 - ve42.co/Euler1
Euler’s Archive 2 - ve42.co/Euler2
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Directed by Casper Mebius
Written by Casper Mebius and Derek Muller
Edited by Peter Nelson
Illustrated by Jakub Misiek
Animated by Fabio Albertelli, Ivy Tello, David Szakaly, Alondra Vitae, Alex Drakoulis, and Leigh Williamson
Filmed by Derek Muller, Raquel Nuno, and Peter Nelson
Additional research by Aaron Santos, Camilla Machado, and Gregor Čavlović
Produced by Casper Mebius, Gregor Čavlović, Han Evans, and Derek Muller
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Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Pond5
Music from Epidemic Sound
All Comments (21)
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>walks up to blackboard >multiplies 2 numbers >walks away >round of applause Frank Nelson Cole was unfathomably based
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When Euler says "it's most difficult", it's gotta be impossible.
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Watching a math related video strictly out of curiosity and having your general math professor Bill Dunham from 25 years ago pop up is a surprise…and finding out he’s now a well respected mathematics historian and not just some guy who endlessly suffered non-math students struggles with train problems is absolutely fantastic. Go Mules!
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Math is a hell of a drug
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13:25 "But Euler wasn't finished yet." I think this sentence appears in most histories of mathematical concepts.
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Not me watching thinking I’m gonna try to solve this while eating hot cheetos
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Man, this video made me realise how little we think about the world. I used to think there may be a point where we learn everything from this world, but seeing this, i realise we just think very little of everything, including ourself. I want to introduce change to myself but seeing videos like this, gives me an idea of how to proceed, even though i am not mathemathician, but i hope to become so
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Your videos are always so crisp, clean, and educational. I absolutely love how you provide the historical progression of things without a bunch of fluff. There is no doubt you are making a positive impact in minds around the world! THANK YOU!
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4:03 "Euclid was actually thinking along similar lines" Euclid: calculates perfect numbers with actual lines
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At 15:42, to prove that the exponent of p is of the form 4k+1, you just have to remark that the sum of the divisors of p^(4k+3) is always divisible by 4 (the powers of p modulo 4 are all 1 if p =4a+1 or alternating 1 and 3 if p=4k+3), which would make 2n divisible by 4 hence n even. The alternating 1 and 3 must be excluded because in this case the sum of the divisors of p^(4k+1) would be divisible by 4 as well. So p is congruent to 1 modulo p (Euler's proof as well).
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This is a superb analysis. It got complicated as we progressed but I was amazed en route at all the ways of writing perfect numbers, and the history of the area.
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There is something so bizarre about Euclid and Euler having a collaboration. If the history of mathematics was a book of fiction, I would call this a fan service 😂
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I have a research project due tomorrow and I was really looking for something distracting. My procrastination thanks you.
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This show how dumb i am
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This channel is absolutely THE BEST science channel. Not only on YT but in general. I'm a primary school teacher from Poland and the amount of facts and curiosities I get from here and transfer into teaching physics, chemistry and even English is astonishing. Thank you.
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Finding perfect numbers is one of the first algorithm assignments you get in a computer Science degree. I never knew it was such an old idea.
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One big application of Mersenne primes, that came from studying perfect numbers, is a good random number generator. RNGs had been historically very bad, until the introduction of Mersenne Twister in 1997, which uses a property of Mersenne primes to prove a good randomness. The most popular version uses a Mersenne prime 2^19937 - 1 for example, hence the name MT19937. There exist much more performant RNGs than Mersenne Twister now, but Mersenne Twister is still widely used thanks to its initial impact.
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What's also really cool is that if you divide the perfect number (at least the first four) by the last number in the line of numbers that make it then divide the perfect number by it, the result keeps doubling. To explain: 6 is 1+2+3, 6/3 is 2 or 2^1. 28 is 1+2+3+4+5+6+7, 28/7 is 4 or 2^2. 496 is 1+2++3...30+31, 496/31 is 16 or 2^4 or 4^2. 8128 is 1+2+3+...127+127, 8128/127 is 64 or 2^6 or 8^2. I don't know if the other perfect numbers fit that, but the first four do and I think that's funky
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Your videos are always so crisp, clean, and educational
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As a physics undergrad. I’ve come to realize that Euler is a Titan alongside Einstein and Newton. Every single bit of modern physics has Euler to thank for providing the mathematical Tools to construct a vivid picture of the universe and its underlying principles. Absolute legend.
