De Polignac's False Conjecture/Historical Note

Historical Note on De Polignac's False Conjecture

Alphonse de Polignac proposed his false conjecture in $1848$, claiming that he had verified it up to $3$ million.

This was clearly an exaggeration, as the conjecture fails for the modestly small number $127$.


David Wells, in his Curious and Interesting Numbers of $1986$, mentions that this topic is discussed by Nigel Boston in Quarch, no. $6$.

This needs to be corroborated.


Sources

  • 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $127$
  • 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $127$
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