Marcus du Sautoy describes prime numbers as ‘the atoms of arithmetic’. He writes of the eerie similarities between the patterns of prime numbers (and yes, they have found a mechanism - Riemann’s Zeta Function – that finally brings prime number patterns to the surface) and energy levels in the nuclei of large atoms.

This connects concepts – prime numbers- that were elegant mental structures without particular value in the physical world, to quantum physics no less. A major link between the purity of math, and physical reality.

An intriguing third connection is to art. In Douglas Adams’s famous work of science fantasy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is...42.

Only a few years ago, mathmeticians conjectured that the third number of the Riemann Zeta sequence, after 1 and 2, is likely to be 42.

Du Sautoy presents a marvelous triangle of mental logic, physical reality, and artistic intuition.

From
‘Prime Numbers Get Hitched’
By Marcus du Sautoy
Professor of math at Oxford University
Seed magazine
Feb/Mar 2006