Prove a Theorem, Win $1,000,000!

April 1, 2000 -- — One generally doesn’t speak the words “prime numbers” and “seven-figure prizes” in the same breath.

But don’t tell that to the publishers of Uncle Petros and Goldbach’sConjecture, an engaging first novel by Greek author ApostolosDoxiadis.

Before getting to the money, here’s a quick synopsis of the story: The narrator tells of his Uncle Petros, whom he initially thinks of as the eccentric black sheep of the family.

Slowly, Uncle Petros is revealed to be a character of complexity and nuance, havingdevoted his considerable mathematical talents and much of his life to afutile effort to prove a classic unsolved problem. His solitary effortsgive one a taste of the delight and the despair of mathematical research.

Goldbach’s Conjecture, Uncle Petros’ holy grail, is startlinglysimple to state:

Any even number greater than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers.

Remember that a prime number is a positive whole number that is divisible only by two numbers: itselfand 1; thus 5 is a prime, but 6, which is divisible by 2 and 3, is not. The number 1 is not considered prime.

Check out the claim. Pick an even number at random and try to find twoprimes which add up to it. Certainly, 6 = 3 + 3, 20 = 13 + 7, and 97 + 23 =120.(This, of course, is not a proof.) The conjecture that this works for everyeven number greater than 2 was proposed in 1742 by Prussian mathematicianChristian Goldbach. To this day it remains unproved despite the efforts ofsome of the world’s best mathematicians.