mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, Euclid numbers are integers of the form , where ''p''_''n''# is the ''n''th

primorial In mathematics, and more particularly in number theory, primorial, denoted by "#", is a function from natural numbers to natural numbers similar to the factorial function, but rather than successively multiplying positive integers, the function ...

, i.e. the product of the first ''n'' prime numbers. They are named after the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, in connection with Euclid's theorem that there are infinitely many prime numbers.

Examples

For example, the first three primes are 2, 3, 5; their product is 30, and the corresponding Euclid number is 31. The first few Euclid numbers are 3, 7, 31,

211 Year 211 ( CCXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, in the Roman Empire it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Terentius and Bassus (or, less frequently, year 964 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomin ...

, 2311, 30031, 510511, 9699691, 223092871, 6469693231, 200560490131, ... .

History

It is sometimes falsely stated that Euclid's celebrated proof of the infinitude of prime numbers relied on these numbers. Euclid did not begin with the assumption that the set of all primes is finite. Rather, he said: consider any finite set of primes (he did not assume that it contained only the first ''n'' primes, e.g. it could have been ) and reasoned from there to the conclusion that at least one prime exists that is not in that set. Nevertheless, Euclid's argument, applied to the set of the first ''n'' primes, shows that the ''n''th Euclid number has a prime factor that is not in this set.

Properties

Not all Euclid numbers are prime. ''E''_''6'' = 13# + 1 = 30031 = 59 × 509 is the first composite Euclid number. Every Euclid number is congruent to 3 mod 4 since the primorial of which it is composed is twice the product of only odd primes and thus congruent to 2 modulo 4. This property implies that no Euclid number can be a square. For all the last digit of ''E''_''n'' is 1, since is divisible by 2 and 5. In other words, since all primorial numbers greater than ''E''₂ have 2 and 5 as prime factors, they are divisible by 10, thus all ''E''_{''n'' ≥ 3}+1 have a final digit of 1.

Unsolved problems

It is not known whether there is an infinite number of prime Euclid numbers ( primorial primes). It is also unknown whether every Euclid number is a squarefree number.

Generalization

A Euclid number of the second kind (also called Kummer number) is an integer of the form ''E_n'' = ''p_n''# − 1, where ''p_n#'' is the nth primorial. The first few such numbers are: :1, 5, 29, 209, 2309, 30029, 510509, 9699689, 223092869, 6469693229, 200560490129, ... As with the Euclid numbers, it is not known whether there are infinitely many prime Kummer numbers. The first of these numbers to be composite is

209 Year 209 ( CCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Commodus and Lollianus (or, less frequently, year 962 '' Ab urbe cond ...

References