journal of science education

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Classroom

In this section of Resonance, we invite readers to pose questions likely to be raised in a classroom situation. We may suggest strategies for dealing with them, or invite responses, or both. "Classroom" is equally a forum for raising broader issues and sharing personal experiences and viewpoints on matters related to teaching and learning science.

The Twin Prime Problem

P H Talapadtur

If two consecutive odd numbers are prime numbers, then they are called twin primes. Whether there are infinitely many twin primes is an open question. There are several old and new results which give a necessary and/or sufficient condition for the existence of infinitely many twin primes. Many of them are interesting although not one of them is of enough practical value to answer the question either way. After recalling some of the prominent ones, we proceed to give another criterion.

Address for Correspondence
P H Talapadtur
C/o Secretary
School of Mathematics
TIFR, Homi Bhabha Road
Mumbai 400 005, India

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