Number theory

Experiments you can run yourself.

Cantor's Infinities

There are genuinely more real numbers than natural numbers — the uncountability of ℝ.

Fermat's Last Theorem

The equation xⁿ+yⁿ=zⁿ has solutions in natural numbers only for n=2.

The Riemann Hypothesis

The distribution of the primes hides a regularity, described by the Riemann hypothesis.

Hilbert's Hotel — infinity in practice

A full hotel with infinitely many rooms can always fit a new guest.

The Sieve of Eratosthenes

There are infinitely many primes (Euclid's proof), though they thin out.

Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem

No complete set of axioms can prove every mathematical truth.

Mathematical Induction — the domino effect

An inductive proof for all n needs a base step and an inductive step.

Perfect Numbers

28 is a perfect number: 28 = 1+2+4+7+14.

Mersenne Primes

The largest known primes are most often numbers of the form 2ᵖ−1 (Mersenne).

Gray Code

In Gray code, adjacent values differ by exactly one bit.

Irrationality of √2 — proof by contradiction

√2 cannot be written as a common fraction p/q — it is an irrational number.

Transcendental numbers — π and e

π is not a root of any polynomial with rational coefficients — it is transcendental.

Ulam spiral — patterns among the primes

In the Ulam spiral the primes line up into visible patterns (diagonal lines).

The Collatz problem (3n+1)

It has not been proved that every number under the 3n+1 procedure reaches 1 — it is an open problem.

Graham's number — bigger than can be written down

Graham's number cannot be written out in digits, even filling the whole Universe — yet it is finite.

Russell's paradox

The set of all sets that do not contain themselves leads to a contradiction.

π contains everything — normal numbers

The expansion of π (probably) contains any finite sequence of digits.