The Investigation poses questions to generate interest in various
mathematical topics from the text and encourages students to formulate and investigate their
own conjectures. One use of the investigations is for term papers in which students report on
their conjectures and the patterns they find.
Click on the Read Me file below to open the investigation in a Word file:
 Read Me - Frequency of Primes Instructions (Word Format)
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The Math Investigator is a data collection software program that may be used to collect data for the investigation. You may type answers onto the Word file or copy
and paste in data from the Investigator. Click here to launch the Frequency of Primes Investigator
Math Investigator 4.1FREQUENCY OF PRIMES on the Math Investigator prints and counts the numbers and types of primes in given intervals. Starting Points for Investigations- How many prime numbers are less than 100? Check other intervals of 100 (100 to 200, 200 to 300, etc.) to determine the numbers of primes. Form a conjecture about the numbers of primes in these intervals.
- Pairs of numbers such as 3 and 5, 5 and 7, 11 and 13, whose difference is 2 are called twin primes. It is not known whether or not there are an infinite number of such primes. Find the numbers of twin primes in intervals of 100 (1 to 100, 100 to 200, etc.). Form a conjecture about the occurrence of twin primes for such intervals.
- In #2 you found consecutive primes whose difference is 2. There are also consecutive primes whose difference is 4, such as 7 and 3, 17 and 13, 23 and 19. Check intervals of 100 to see if such primes exist in each interval. Do the number of such primes appear to be increasing or decreasing from interval to interval?
- Are there consecutive primes whose difference is any even number? For example, consecutive primes whose difference is 6? 8? 10? Are there consecutive primes whose difference is any odd number (1, 3, 5, etc.)? Investigate these questions and form a conjecture based on your evidence. (You may be interested to know that there are conjectures in mathematics involving even numbered differences of primes which as yet are unproved.)
- The Russian mathematician Pafnuty Tchebyshev proved that between any whole number greater than 1 and its double, there exists at least one prime. As examples: there is at least one prime between 8 and 16; there is at least one prime between 6 and 12; etc. Investigate numbers greater that 5 and their doubles to see if there are at least two primes between the number and its double. Use your observations to form conjectures.
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