Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Perfection?

There are all different kinds of numbers, in many different classes.

Rational, irrational, trancendental, prime, emirp, hailstone, negative, imaginary, all of interest.

Including the so-called "perfect" numbers.

These numbers just happen to be equal to the sum of all their divisors.

Examples are 6 ( = 1 + 2 + 3) and 28 ( = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 )

These perfect numbers are very rare. In fact, less than 30 have ever been found.

It has been conjectured that they do not go on forever like the primes, and that there is actually a highest one of all.

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