The Millennium Prize math challenges.
Mathematics is amazing! It helps us count chocolates in a box and calculate the time it takes a rocket to reach the moon.
Math has many problems to solve, some easy and some very tough. The Millennium Prize Problems, set by the Clay Mathematics Institute, are seven extremely tough puzzles.
If someone solves just one of these problems, they win prize money! So far, one of the seven problems has been solved, and mathematicians are getting closer to solving another: the Riemann Hypothesis.
What’s the Riemann Hypothesis?
You learnt in your math classes that prime numbers are special because they can only be divided by 1 and themselves. The Riemann Hypothesis is a famous question about these prime numbers.
Imagine throwing marbles on the floor. They scatter randomly. Prime numbers are also like that, scattered randomly among other numbers without a clear order.
Sometimes, many prime numbers are close together; other times, there are very few. Mathematicians wonder if there's a hidden pattern to how they are scattered.
People have tried to understand how prime numbers are spread out for many years. Solving the Riemann Hypothesis can help answer this question.
Why Is It Important to solve the Riemann Hypothesis?
To understand this, we need to understand the importance of prime numbers.
Prime numbers are like Lego bricks, with which we can make many things. Similarly, you can use prime numbers to build any number, and any number can be broken down into prime numbers.
Here’s how:
If you take two prime numbers, 2 and 3, and multiply them, you get 6 (2 x 3 = 6).
10 can be broken down into 2 x 5 (both are prime numbers).
Solving the Riemann Hypothesis would help mathematicians solve many other difficult problems, like finding a secret code that makes everything easier.
Two mathematicians, Larry Guth and James Maynard, have made progress that might help solve this problem. But solving it will still take more time.
