In 1971, German mathematicians Schönhage and Strassen predicted a faster algorithm for multiplying large numbers, but it ...

The online computer game “Is this prime?” tests a player’s knowledge of prime numbers—and just surpassed 2,999,999 attempts. Give it a whirl. The Greek mathematician Euclid may very well have proved, ...

Prime numbers are all the rage these days. I can tell something’s up when random people start asking me about the randomness of primes—without even knowing that I’m a mathematician! In the past couple ...

In 1749, Leonhard Euler solved a longstanding open problem in number theory, proving Fermat’s 1640 conjecture that any prime number of the form 4m + 1 can be written as the sum of two squares. This ...

An amateur mathematician from San Jose, US, has discovered the largest prime number yet with over 41 million digits. Prime numbers, the building blocks of mathematics, are divisible only by themselves ...

A shard of smooth bone etched with irregular marks dating back 20,000 years puzzled archaeologists until they noticed something unique—the etchings, lines like tally marks, may have represented prime ...

A digital computer is generally believed to be an efficient universal computing device; that is, it is believed to be able to simulate any physical computing device with an increase in computation ...

Toronto Metropolitan University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA. Toronto Metropolitan University provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR. A number is ...