This was done as part of an event by Matt Parker (@standupmaths ) "An Evening of Unnecessary Detail". Many thanks to Tim Blais (@acapellascience) for joining, and for the Bell House in Brooklyn for housing the event.
For a long time, he never showed his face on his 3B1B channel, I thought he was not likely good-looking since he was so intelligent and articulate, turned out he is good-looking. Now I just discovered he is musically talented too. All good genes.
Lyrics: Ain't no twin prime solution It ain't known how they behave Do the twin primes go on and on? It's been open so damn long No-one knows quite what to say When are primes just two away? Well firstly are primes ever done? Euclid said there's just no way Multiply them and add one Every factor of that sum Is a prime not in the array So they never end, well, okay But when are primes just two away? Is there some algorithm? To sift the primes some simple way? I know the first one, that's the two To find the rest, here's what you do Reduce the naturals modulo two (Oh I get it! ...No, I, I, I don't get it, actually. Can you spell it out?) It goes one oh, one oh, one oh, one oh, one oh, one oh, one oh... (Tim! Tim!) (What?) (There IS more to the algorithm.) (Ah, that- that makes sense, actually. Um - please continue.) You knock off the zeros, reduce 'em mod three, like One oh, two one, oh two, one oh, two one, oh two, one oh... (Oh, okay! I get it.) Knock off the zeros, reduce 'em mod five, like One oh, two one, three two, four three, oh four, one oh, two one, three two, four three, oh four... Knock off the zeros, reduce 'em mod seven, like Hey, that's a neat little thing you've shown But what of twin primes on and on? As the new primes do go on (That prime theorem) The gaps between them grow this way (Something about Riemann) For a big prime, call it p The gap that follows tends to be On the mean, the logarithm base e But will they stop coming just two away? No-one knows quite what to say (Well okay.) Yet I get crank proofs every day (Dear sir! I have proven the twin primes conjecture!) They always start the same damn way (I study an elegant proof of prime generation!) To count the twin primes all you do Is list the numbers all the way through Reducing all of them modulo two (It's so simple!) It goes one oh, one oh, one oh, one oh... (Huge red flag if you're starting this way!) Knock off the zeros, reduce 'em mod three, like One oh, two one, oh two, one oh, two one, oh two... (All you're doing is applying a sieve...) (Search term you're looking for is "parity problem".) Knock off the zeros, reduce 'em mod five, like- Hey, you want to leave that proof alone There ain't no chance that's how it's shown When you start so trivially (One oh, one oh, one oh...) Like with the sieve of Eratosthenes (One oh, two one, oh two...) Chances are high you went wrong (I am the greatest math wizard alive) It's been open so damn long (Now take out the zeros, reduce 'em mod five) Someone else would've found such a way (Now one oh, two one, three two, four three, oh four...) You want a proof twin primes go on You want to be the next Yitang Zhang Maybe read what researchers say When the primes are just two away When are primes just two away? When are primes just two away?
Notes: -Some of the later 'one oh, two one, ...' don't follow the proper pattern. I assume this was unintentional; the above transcription has (what I believe is) the actual pattern. -I can't figure out what Grant says at 3:35. -4:21 sounds a lot more like "You want a proof twin primes are one" to my ears, but I don't think that makes sense so I'll assume they sang 'go on'.
So glad to say I was there live, the crowd went wild with the “1 0 1 0 1 0….” Also I see the first attempt of this was not included here, which has some impressive Grant vocals😉
Sift the twos and sift the threes, In the Sieve of Eratostheses, Sift the fives and sift the sevens, Then go round and sift elevens, And as the multiples sublime, The numbers that remain are prime!
Im just seeing Mr. Sanderson's face here, which I do very rarely, and Im noticing that without this man even knowing I exist, he has instilled the love for mathematics into me and taught me so much that I wouldve never known before. Thank you so much for changing my life so wildly and bringing me to such great places. Keep doing what youre doing, Im excited to see what comes next.
I keep rewatching this! Their voices, beautiful separately and wonderful together. The banter, and Grant saying Damn. The playing, and the slides. The fun lyrics, and the parts where they diverge and come back together. It's all such a great combination!
math, teaching, poetry, amazing speaking and singing voice, guitar, handsomeness ... is there anything Grant can't do (iirc he also helped compose a bit of the main channel's music)
HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FRICK TWO OF MY FAVORITE RU-vid DUDES TOGETHER I LOVE YOU BOTH THANK YOU SO MUUUUUCH (I now officially understand k-pop fans when they shout all their lungs during the whole concert)
Hi Grant! Thank you for putting our balloons up on stage. The one seen in the background of this video was supposed to be a brown cube. There were three other balloon shapes, all blue tetrahedrons. It was a blast sneaking the balloon pump into the venue and building these shapes before the show.
This is the greatest parody of a pop song that includes a full mathematical proof in its lyrics of all time. Seriously, so happy about this song, pure genius.
@@tylerduncan5908 Nah, RU-vid is full of them. This one is much better than most, though. Most of them are American college students studying Calculus 1 and getting really excited about integration by parts.
There’s no proof in their lyrics. Although this is an excellent practice of a researcher, I agree. I think theyre taking inspiration from a blues motive - it seems distinctly that its not a ‘pop’ thing. And in this case, it can’t be equated with actual blues music.
woah this is awesome. i didn't know about that sieve algorithm thing before and it's hilarious how there are apparently a lot of people thinking they have proved the twin prime conjecture starting from that algorithm even though they probably have not.
Holy primes Grant, this made my day! Just when I thought I couldn’t fall any deeper in love with your content! 😃 I had no idea you that you play guitar, and also sing. I’m also a guitar player and a singer-songwriter, and a computer scientist who’s very passionate about mathematics. Incredible performance, and so creative! Bravo!! 👏
Oh, too cool! I love blues, and I'm a bit of a maths nerd, so when YT offered this up for me to watch, I was intrigued. It did NOT disappoint! 😂 Love it, now I'm going to go look for more of the same!
Hey Grant, parody idea for you: "Axiom of Choice", to the tune (or rhythm) of "Weapon of Choice". I've tried myself, but I don't know enough maths. Your maths song parodies are great and I think you could do the idea justice.
