Questions About Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics

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Answered Questions (2)

Hello. I was good at mathematics as a youngster, but ditched it in favor of the arts and humanities at around age 16 or 17. Would I be able to understand this book and get something from it? It is being recommended to me by a friend - he says this is the one to get on the subject. But this fellow is pretty darn brilliant at math and I fear I will soon get bogged down. Should I try it?

Terry One should always try. The author will take you through the process at a gentle, orderly pace. There are fascinating "nuggets" scattered throughout th…moreOne should always try. The author will take you through the process at a gentle, orderly pace. There are fascinating "nuggets" scattered throughout the book. In general, the chapters alternate between math and history. Obviously you'll understand all the history, and I would think most of the math will be accessible.

Will you be able to prove the Riemann Hypothesis after reading it? Probably not. Will you understand what the hypothesis means? More than likely.

Math and Physics were my best subjects at University, but I choose Microbiology/Molecular Biology as a career because I didn't see a clear path forward in Math. Had I read more books like "Prime Obsession" when I was younger things might have been different. Perhaps I didn't try hard enough...(less)

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The author says that pi(n) ~ Li(n). I've checked it numerically and find that the approximation is not that, but rather: pi(n) ~ n/log(n) + Li(n). Is this correct or am I wrong? I'll appreciate some feedback in that respect

Julián If pi(n) ~ n/log(n) + Li(n) was correct then you would have roughly twice more primes up to n compared to how many there really are.

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Unanswered Questions (1)

On page 340, First, I must raise 20 to the power 12 + 14.134725i. The result is −0.302303 − 4.46191i. Take the logarithmic integral—the Li function—of that to get the answer −0.105384 + 3.14749i. I try on MATLAB >> a=20^(1/2+14.134725i) a = -0.3023 - 4.4619i % good >> logint(a) ans = 1.9980 - 3.9138i % worng Am I wong? I tried by other ways but failed. The result on the book, cannot be explained.

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