University of Connecticut
Department of Mathematics
UConn Math Club

John Haga
(UConn)
Depleted harmonic series and a neat theorem about primes
MSB 319 - Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Free Refreshments

  The sum of reciprocals 1/n where n does not contain 9 as a digit converges. Such a sum is called a depleted harmonic series.

There's nothing special about 9 here. We can consider the sum of all 1/n where n doesn't have the block of digits 12121212121212 in it. That sum also converges. Combining this with a theorem about primes which goes back to Euler, we will see that there are infinitely many primes which contain 12121212121212 as a block of its digits.

 
   

Email: uconnmathclub@gmail.com Facebook group: UConn Math Club
UConn Math Club Webpage: http://www.math.uconn.edu/mathclub/