Goldbach conjecture
Goldbach pair count. For every even number, number of pairs is displayed
Prime numbers provide a rich source of speculative mathematical ideas.
Today, prime numbers are fascinating but they are also of commercial importance, since the best commercial and military ciphers depend on their properties.
Here is another unproved conjecture about prime numbers. It is called the Goldbach conjecture and may be stated as follows:
Every even number greater than 4 can be written as the sum of two odd prime numbers
For example:
* 8 = 3 + 5. Both 3 and 5 are prime numbers.
* 20 = 13 + 7 = 17 + 3.
* 42 = 23 + 19 = 29 + 13 = 31 + 11 = 37 + 5.
Notice that there can be more than one Goldbach pair. The conjecture says only that there is at least one, and has nothing to say about whether there may be more.
You can explore the Goldbach conjecture yourself with this Goldbach calculator. Simply enter an even integer, n, greater than 4 and the calculator will find all the Goldbach pairs.
Christian Goldbach (1690-1764) was a Prussian amateur mathematician and historian who lived in St Petersburg and Moscow. He made his conjecture in a letter to Leonhard Euler, who at first treated the letter with some disdain, regarding the result as trivial. Goldbach's conjecture, however, remains unproved to this day.
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