Thanks to James Davis — who stands to collect $1000 for finding a counterexample to a John H. Conway conjecture (see the video here, from 19:20 to 22:30):
13532385396179 = 13 * 53^2 * 3853 * 96179
Very nice! I'm glad it ended up this way. When I wrote my Climb to a prime piece on 12 October 2014, I was under the distinct impression that it would have been enough to evolve the number 20 to a prime in order to claim the prize. I now see that Bill Cheswick's "Five $1000 Problems" pdf was last updated 13 October 2014 — one day later — and I no longer read it that way.
Hey Hans.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to the comment by James Davis, you're the only person I can talk to about one of John H. Conway's conjectures (problem 3, the Thrackle Problem). I believe I have two counter-examples to this problem and so, similar to James Davis's comment, contact me at hparsloe1@gmail.com
Lots of people have worked on the thrackles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrackle
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