Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Formula for primes
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Wright's formula== A [[tetration]]ally growing prime-generating formula similar to Mills' comes from a theorem of [[E. M. Wright]]. He proved that there exists a real number ''Ξ±'' such that, if :<math>g_0 = \alpha</math> and :<math>g_{n+1} = 2^{g_n}</math> for <math>n \ge 0</math>, then :<math>\left \lfloor g_n \right \rfloor = \left \lfloor 2^{\dots^{2^{2^\alpha}}} \right \rfloor </math> is prime for all <math>n \ge 1</math>.<ref>{{citation |author=E. M. Wright |title=A prime-representing function |journal=[[American Mathematical Monthly]] |volume=58 |issue=9 |year=1951 |pages=616β618 |jstor=2306356 |doi= 10.2307/2306356}}</ref> Wright gives the first seven decimal places of such a constant: <math>\alpha = 1.9287800</math>. This value gives rise to the primes <math>\left \lfloor g_1 \right \rfloor = \left \lfloor 2^{\alpha} \right \rfloor = 3 </math>, <math>\left \lfloor g_2 \right \rfloor = 13 </math>, and <math>\left \lfloor g_3 \right \rfloor = 16381 </math>. <math>\left \lfloor g_4 \right \rfloor</math> is [[parity (mathematics)|even]], and so is not prime. However, with <math>\alpha = 1.9287800 + 8.2843 \cdot 10^{-4933}</math>, <math>\left \lfloor g_1 \right \rfloor</math>, <math>\left \lfloor g_2 \right \rfloor</math>, and <math>\left \lfloor g_3 \right \rfloor</math> are unchanged, while <math>\left \lfloor g_4 \right \rfloor</math> is a prime with 4932 digits.<ref>{{cite arXiv |last=Baillie |first=Robert |eprint=1705.09741v3 |title=Wright's Fourth Prime |class=math.NT |date=5 June 2017|mode=cs2 }}</ref> This [[sequence]] of primes cannot be extended beyond <math>\left \lfloor g_4 \right \rfloor</math> without knowing more digits of <math>\alpha</math>. Like Mills' formula, and for the same reasons, Wright's formula cannot be used to find primes.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)