Icon of program: Ulams Prime Number Spiral

Ulams Prime Number Spiral for Windows


Key Details of Ulams Prime Number Spiral

  • Generate arbitrarily large spirals with configurable coloring and other options.
  • Last updated on 7/26/2015
  • There have been 5 updates

Developer's Description

Generate arbitrarily large spirals with configurable coloring and other options.
There is an infinite number of prime numbers, and yet the prime numbers themselves do not display any apparent pattern, nor does any formula exist that generates prime numbers. In fact, Legendre proved that there cannot be an algebraic function which always gives primes.

It was first noticed by the physicist StanisÃ??aw Ulam in 1963, when he got bored in a meeting and started doodling spirals of numbers. He noticed that, if he makes a spiral of consecutive integers, and circles only the prime numbers, strange diagonal "lines" of prime numbers emerge. This is quite surprising, since we would intuitively expect a random distribution of prime numbers. However, these diagonal segments occur on an impressively large scale, and arbitrarily far from the center of the spiral. The following image is a spiral containing about 4000 primes, and next to it is the same image with some of the diagonal paths highlighted. To explore this phenomenon on a large scale, Ulams Prime Number Spiral generates arbitrarily large spirals, with configurable coloring and other options.


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Full Specifications

GENERAL
Release
January 5, 2007
Latest update
July 26, 2015
Version
1.0
OPERATING SYSTEMS
Platform
Windows
Operating System
Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 10, Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows Vista, Windows NT, Windows 7
Additional Requirements
None
POPULARITY
Total Downloads
91
Downloads Last Week
0
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