A Math Problem and the Answer

Problem: Two prime numbers (>=5) and there are one and only one number between them, such as (5, 7), (11, 13), (17, 19), etc.. Prove the sum of such two prime numbers can always be divided by 6.

Answer: All the natural numbers can be expressed as 6n+0, 6n+1, 6n+2, 6n+3, 6n+4, 6n+5, n >= 0. 6n+{0,2,4} are all even and 6n+3 can be divided by 3, so they are not prime numbers (2 is prime, but the problem is asking prime >= 5, so we ignore 2 here). Therefore, prime numbers can be only in two forms: 6n+1 and 6n+5.

Let p1 = 6n+5 and p2 = 6(n+1)+1, there is only 6(n+1)+0 between them, which satisfies the constraint in problem description. Then, p1 + p2 = 6n+5 + 6(n+1)+1 = 6(2n+2) which obviously can always be divided by 6. Note that p1 and p2 can be any two natural numbers satisfy that constraint, therefore two prime numbers. This example concludes our proof.

This entry was posted in Discovery and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to A Math Problem and the Answer

  1. Pingback: even prime number | Lasts information

  2. Pingback: even prime number | Hottags

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>