De Polignac's False Conjecture/Historical Note
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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): $127$