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bcj
@bcj

One of the last unsolved conjectures that was found in Ramanujan's notes after death is that N=6 is the only integer solution which satisfies "Why is N afraid of N + 1? Because N + 1, N + 2, N + 3"1. It's strongly assumed that this is true and there's been work using distributed software that has checked up to about 10⁴⁷. A new paper out of the University of Alberta claims to prove that if there's any other number that works, N + 1 and N + 3 are twin primes and that N isn't a multiple of 3 or 5. I don't understand the math well enough to comment but it seems like we might see a solution in our lifetime


  1. In base 10 and English


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in reply to @bcj's post:

if we say "why is 3,593,204,492 afraid of 3,593,204,493? Because 3,593,204,493 3,593,204,494 3,593,204,495" enough times maybe we will not only understand the joke but understand something deep about ourselves and the universe. anyone want to set up a commune in the mountains where we dedicate our lives to this

If N + 1 and N + 3 are twin primes, then N + 2 is a multiple of six (as this is true of all twin primes), and thus also a multiple of three. If N + 2 is a multiple of three, then N can’t be a multiple of three.

So that part checks out at least.