A prime number is a number that is divisible only by itself and 1. Some examples being 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13.… The great mathematician Euclid proved centuries ago that there are an infinite number of them continuing without pattern ad infinitum. However, their real importance is given by what is known as the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. It states that every number can be uniquely expressed as a product of prime numbers. Let’s take the example of 364 = 2 × 2 × 7 × 13. This is the only way that 364 can be obtained by prime numbers! Therefore, they are the atoms or building blocks of numbers. But in 1859, the great German mathematician Bernhard Riemann hypothesized that the spacing of the primes logically follows from other numbers, now known as the “nontrivial zeros” of the Riemann zeta function. The Riemann zeta function takes inputs not only real numbers but also complex numbers — meaning they have both “real” and “imaginary” components — and yields ...
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