Math E-320 Spring 2022
Teaching Math with a Historical Perspective
Unit 04: Number Theory
 Unit 01 |
 Unit 02 |
 Unit 03 |
 Unit 04 |
 Unit 05 |
 Unit 06 |
 Unit 07 |
 Unit 08 |
 Unit 09 |
 Unit 10 |
 Unit 11 |
 Unit 12 |
 Unit 13 |
| In unit 4, we cover number theory. The second document on roots of the Moebius function came up while preparing for the number theory lecture. I observed that on Fermat or Mersenne numbers we only see square free integers appearing. I spent a few hours writing something down, then looked up Guy's book on unsolved problems in number theory and saw that this has been noticed already. Actually, I'm not so sure as Guy whether there will be some square factors appear on numbers 2p -1 for large prime p. Statistically, we would expect them to appear earlier. |