Monday, January 3, 2011

Happy mathematical new year: 2011 is the sum of 11 consecutive prime numbers








A prime number year 2011 …. first one since 2003.
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2011 is also the sum of 11 CONSECUTIVE prime numbers: 2011=157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211
 
Two prime numbers are “consecutive” if they follow one upon the other, in the collection of prime numbers. So, for example, 3 and 5 are consecutive prime numbers, as are 7 and 11.
These tweets, re-tweeted, attracted a fair amount of attention, deservedly so, because the second observation is both funny and thought provoking.

The link leads us to an entry in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences™ in which there is some data on prime numbers that are sums of two or more consecutive prime numbers.
This On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences™ entry includes Mathematica code to find such prime numbers.
The problem of finding prime numbers that are sums of two or more non-consecutive primes is a non-trivial computational exercise for school students and, it seems to me, one that many of them would find fun.
Here’s a variant of that problem, stemming from @mathematicsprof’s observation:
2011 is the sum of a prime number (11) of consecutive prime numbers.
Which prime numbers are a sum of a prime number of consecutive prime numbers?

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