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Week 3 · ClassicalPartial progress
Primary source

Goldbach's Conjecture — Every Even Number as a Sum of Two Primes

Simple rule · open problem· Posed 1742A002375

Problem

Can every even integer n>2n > 2 be written as the sum of two primes? E.g., 10=3+7=5+510 = 3+7 = 5+5, 100100 has 6 representations.

Why it matters

In a 1742-06-07 letter from Goldbach to Euler. Euler's reply: "I regard it as a completely certain theorem, although I cannot prove it." 285 years later we're still in that state. The number of representations grows with nn100100 has 6 ways, 1,0001{,}000 has 28, near 10610^6 it's tens of thousands — strong heuristic, but proof is another matter.

Progress so far

Verified up to 4×10184 \times 10^{18} (Oliveira e Silva 2014). Vinogradov (1937): every sufficiently large odd number is a sum of three primes. Harald Helfgott (2013): every odd number >5> 5 is a sum of three primes — ternary Goldbach completely proved. The strong (even) Goldbach remains open.

Further reading

💡 Explore together, one line at a time(0 contributions)

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What did you notice?

You do not need a complete proof. A small observation can open the next path.

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