Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis: The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbers

When Albert Einstein sought the mathematics to bring his general theory of relativity to life, he found his solution in the works of none other than Bernard Reimann. And although Reimann died young (at 39) apparently the special math necessary for relativity was not Reimann's only masterstroke. He also developed a theta function or formula for predicting the placement of prime numbers in the number line. As you may recall from elementary mathematics, prime numbers are those numbers only divisible by themselves and one. Though casual thought on the matter may initially lead one to conclude that prime numbers would eventually be exhausted (indeed the higher you go the more rare they do become) mathematical proofs dating back to Euclid show that like the integer line they accompany they go on forever. But again figuring out how they can be located algorithmically within that forever was long a mathematics holy grail until 1859 when Bernard Reimann posited a hypothesis for locating them. His hypothesis or zeta function involves incredibly complicated mathematics certainly beyond the scope of this book so if you want to understand it you may do better to read Reimann's Zeta Function. However if you want the outlines of search that goes from ancient Greece all the way to modern times, this book makes quick accessible reading.