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The first such distribution found is π(N) ~ N / log(N) , where π(N) is the prime-counting function (the number of primes less than or equal to N) and log(N) is the natural logarithm of N. This means that for large enough N, the probability that a random integer not greater than N is prime is very close to 1 / log(N).
In mathematics, the prime-counting function is the function counting the number of prime numbers less than or equal to some real number x. [1] [2] It is denoted by π(x) (unrelated to the number π). A symmetric variant seen sometimes is π 0 (x), which is equal to π(x) − 1 ⁄ 2 if x is exactly a prime number, and equal to π(x) otherwise.
Since no prime number divides 1, p cannot be in the list. This means that at least one more prime number exists that is not in the list. This proves that for every finite list of prime numbers there is a prime number not in the list. [4] In the original work, Euclid denoted the arbitrary finite set of prime numbers as A, B, Γ. [5]
It is almost certain that Euler meant that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes less than n is asymptotic to log log n as n approaches infinity. It turns out this is indeed the case, and a more precise version of this fact was rigorously proved by Franz Mertens in 1874. [3]
More precisely, they showed that there exist positive constants c and C such that for all sufficiently large numbers N, every even number less than N is the sum of two primes, with at most CN 1 − c exceptions. In particular, the set of even integers that are not the sum of two primes has density zero.
A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only ways of writing it as a product, 1 × 5 or 5 × 1, involve 5 itself. However, 4 is composite because it is a ...
According to Sylvester's generalization, one of these numbers has a prime factor greater than k. Since all these numbers are less than 2(k + 1), the number with a prime factor greater than k has only one prime factor, and thus is a prime. Note that 2n is not prime, and thus indeed we now know there exists a prime p with n < p < 2n.
Also called primes congruent to d modulo a. The primes of the form 2n+1 are the odd primes, including all primes other than 2. Some sequences have alternate names: 4n+1 are Pythagorean primes, 4n+3 are the integer Gaussian primes, and 6n+5 are the Eisenstein primes (with 2 omitted).