1On June 7, 742, Goldbach wrote to Euler and put forward the famous Goldbach conjecture: take any odd number, such as 77, it can be written as the sum of three prime numbers, that is, 77 = 53+17+7; Any odd number, such as 46 1, can be expressed as 46 1=449+7+5, which is also the sum of three prime numbers. 46 1 can also be written as 257+ 199+5, which is still the sum of three prime numbers. There are many examples, that is, it is found that "any odd number greater than 5 is the sum of three prime numbers."
1742 On June 30th, Euler wrote back to Goldbach. This proposition seems correct, but he can't give a strict proof. At the same time, Euler put forward another proposition: any even number greater than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers. But he also failed to prove this proposition.
Hua, who studied history, was the first mathematician in China to engage in Goldbach conjecture. From 65438 to 0950, after returning from the United States, Hua organized a seminar on number theory at the Institute of Mathematics of China Academy of Sciences, and chose Goldbach conjecture as the topic of discussion. Wang Yuan, Pan Chengdong, Chen Jingrun and other students who attended the seminar made good achievements in proving Goldbach's conjecture.
1956, Wang Yuan proved "3+4"; In the same year, the mathematician A.V. Noguera Dov of the former Soviet Union proved "3+3"; 1957, Wang Yuan proved "2+3"; Pan chengdong proved "1+5" in 1962; 1963, Pan Chengdong, Barba En and Wang Yuan all proved "1+4"; 1966, Chen Jingrun proved "1+2" after making new and important improvements to the screening method.