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Euler’s prime-producing polynomial revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2024

Robert Heffernan ,
Nick Lord  and
Des MacHale
Robert Heffernan
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Munster Technological University, Cork, Ireland e-mail: Robert.Heffernan@mtu.ie
Nick Lord
Affiliation:
Tonbridge School, Kent TN9 1JP e-mail: njl@tonbridge-school.org
Des MacHale
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland e-mail: d.machale@ucc.ief
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Euler’s polynomial f (n) = n2 + n + 41 is famous for producing 40 different prime numbers when the consecutive values 0, 1, …, 39 are substituted: see Table 1. Some authors, including Euler, prefer the polynomial f (n − 1) = n2 − n + 41 with prime values for n = 1, …, 40. Since f (−n) = f (n − 1), f (n) actually takes prime values (with each value repeated once) for n = −40, −39, …, 39; equivalently the polynomial f (n − 40) = n2 − 79n + 1601 takes (repeated) prime values for n = 0, 1, …, 79.

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Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 108 , Issue 571 , March 2024 , pp. 69 - 77
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© The Authors, 2024 Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Mathematical Association

References

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