Week 11: A $1 million maths problem (Goldbach)

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This week’s problem gives you a chance to become famous (and potentially rich)!  German mathematician Christian Goldbach (above) in 1742 proposed the following conjecture:

“Every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of 2 prime numbers.”

Over 250 years later no-one has been able to prove it.  Anyone who can prove it get $1 million and would enter the mathematical history books!  Can you find make a start by finding all the solutions to following?

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You can download a pdf of the solution here.

Teacher notes:

Level of difficulty:  Accessible for all students

Syllabus knowledge required:  None.

This would be a good starter to support a lesson on proof

Published by Ibmathsresources.com

Maths teacher

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