Re: Solve stuck at 243
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg124212] Re: Solve stuck at 243
- From: Ralph Dratman <ralph.dratman at gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:51:44 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <201201130953.EAA16531@smc.vnet.net>
Thank you, but I am actually not trying to solve the problem. I just
want to understand what happened to Solve and Prime.
Ralph
On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 8:11 AM, Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz at mimuw.edu.pl> wrote:
> I am not sure what happens there but the problem seems not difficult. Let's first define a fast function that checks if a number is a perfect square:
>
> perfectSquare =
> Compile[{{x, _Integer}}, Module[{w = N[Sqrt[x]]}, w == Round[w]],
> RuntimeAttributes -> {Listable}, Parallelization -> True]
>
> (I haven't really tested if this is the fastest way do to that, but it should be pretty fast. Of course it's not guaranteed to be correct for extremly large numbers but we hope they won't be needed). So now we define our test:
>
> test[n_] := Or @@ perfectSquare[(n - Prime[Range[2, PrimePi[n]]])/2]
>
> In other words, we look at the differences between a number and all the primes less than the number (excluding 2, of course), divide by two and check if there are any perfect squares. If there aren't, we have our solution.
>
> Catch[
> Do[If[Not[PrimeQ[i]] && Not[test[i]], Throw[i]], {i, 9, 10^4, 2}]]
>
> 5777
>
> This is not as large as I had feared. We can actually confirm the computation exactly.
>
> Select[
> Sqrt[With[{n = 5777}, (n - Prime[Range[2, PrimePi[n]]])/2]], IntegerQ]
>
> {}
>
>
> Andrzej Kozlowski
>
>
> On 13 Jan 2012, at 10:53, Ralph Dratman wrote:
>
>> Project Euclid asks, "What is the smallest odd composite
>> that cannot be written as the sum of a prime and twice a
>> square?"
>>
>> I tried the following equation, not really expecting it to
>> work:
>>
>> oddComposite == Prime[m] + 2 k^2
>>
>> Surprisingly, the above actually does work for all the odd
>> composite numbers through 237.
>>
>> solveInstance[oddComposite_] := Solve[{oddComposite ==
>> Prime[m] + 2*k^2, k > 0, m > 0}, {k, m}, Integers];
>> For[i = 9, i < 300, i = i + 2,
>> If[Not[PrimeQ[i]], Print[i,": ", solveInstance[i]]]]
>>
>> 9: {{k->1,m->4}}
>> 15: {{k->1,m->6},{k->2,m->4}}
>> 21: {{k->1,m->8},{k->2,m->6},{k->3,m->2}}
>> 25: {{k->1,m->9},{k->2,m->7},{k->3,m->4}}
>> 27: {{k->2,m->8}}
>> 33: {{k->1,m->11}}
>> 35: {{k->3,m->7},{k->4,m->2}}
>> 39: {{k->1,m->12},{k->2,m->11},{k->4,m->4}}
>> 45: {{k->1,m->14},{k->2,m->12},{k->4,m->6}}
>> 49: {{k->1,m->15},{k->2,m->13},{k->3,m->11},{k->4,m->7}}
>> 51: {{k->2,m->14},{k->4,m->8}}
>>
>> - - - - - - snip - - - - - -
>>
>> 217: {{k->3,m->46},{k->5,m->39},{k->8,m->24},{k->10,m->7}}
>> 219: {{k->2,m->47},{k->10,m->8}}
>> 221: {{k->6,m->35},{k->9,m->17}}
>> 225: {{k->1,m->48},{k->4,m->44},{k->7,m->31},{k->8,m->25}}
>> 231:
>> {{k->1,m->50},{k->2,m->48},{k->4,m->46},{k->5,m->42},{k->8,m
>> ->27},{k->10,m->11}}
>> 235:
>> {{k->1,m->51},{k->2,m->49},{k->6,m->38},{k->7,m->33},{k->8,m
>> ->28},{k->9,m->21}}
>> 237: {{k->2,m->50},{k->7,m->34},{k->8,m->29},{k->10,m->12}}
>>
>> - - - - - - but then, at 243, something changes - - - - -
>>
>> 243: {{k->1,m->53},{k->4,m->47},{k->5,m->44},{k->10,m->14}}
>> Solve::nsmet: This system cannot be solved with the methods
>> available to Solve. >>
>>
>> 245: Solve[{245==2 k^2+Prime[m],k>0,m>0},{k,m},Integers]
>> Solve::nsmet: This system cannot be solved with the methods
>> available to Solve. >>
>>
>> 247: Solve[{247==2 k^2+Prime[m],k>0,m>0},{k,m},Integers]
>> Solve::nsmet: This system cannot be solved with the methods
>> available to Solve. >>
>>
>> ... and so on. Strange.
>>
>> Does anyone know why such a threshold might appear?
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Ralph Dratman
>>
>
- References:
- Solve stuck at 243
- From: Ralph Dratman <ralph.dratman@gmail.com>
- Solve stuck at 243