HISTORY OF PERFECT NUMBERS

HASITHA NIPUN
PRESENTATION 1
Historical Background

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Origin of Perfect Numbers
• Greek mathematician Pythagoras (ca. 570-ca. 490 BCE) observed that
the number 6 is equal to the sum of its positive divisors, other than
itself:

• Pythagoras also found that the next number having this property is
28.

• Pythagoreans called such numbers “perfect.”

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What is a Perfect Number?

Definition 1
A positive integer is said to be perfect if is equal to the sum of all its
positive divisors, excluding itself.

Definition 2
A positive integer is said to be perfect if .
where is the sum of positive divisors of .

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Ancient people’s beliefs about Perfect Numbers

• People believed that Perfect Numbers have supernatural powers.

• Perfect numbers were considered divine due to the complexity of their

discovery.

• God took six days to symbolize the perfection of His work by the perfect
number 6.

• Universe is represented by 28 which is the number of days it takes the

moon to circle the earth.
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Euclid’s Contribution

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Euclid
• Greek mathematician Euclid (fl. 300 B.C.) is known as the
Father of Geometry.
• He wrote a mathematical treatise called Elements
which consists of 13 books.
• In Book IX, Prop. 36, Euclid proved a
sufficient condition for an even number
to be perfect.

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Euclid’s Theorem
Theorem
If is a prime for some integer , then = () is a perfect number.
Proof: Suppose is prime and consider the integer = . Since = 1, the
multiplicative nature of yield
))

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Another useful result…
Theorem
If is a prime (and ), then and is also a prime.

Try to Prove!

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Next two perfect numbers…
• Using these results Euclid found that the next two perfect numbers were 496
and 8128.
• For the primes p = 2, 3, 5 and 7 the values are 3,7,31 and 127 of ) are primes.
Computing () we get

• The ancient Greeks knew only these first four perfect numbers. 10
Caution!
• Many early philosopher erroneously believed that 2p − 1 is a prime
for any prime p.
• In1536, Hudalrichus Regius showed that

in his work entitled Utriusque Arithmetices.

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‘Predictions’ about Perfect Numbers

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Nicomachus
• Nicomachus (fl. 100 CE) was a mathematician lived in
Gerasa, Roman Syria. (now Jarash, Jordan).
• He wrote a book entitled Arithmetike.
• Nicomachus in his Arithmetike listed the four
perfect numbers known at the time.

• Observing the first four perfect numbers he predicted some

properties of perfect numbers.
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Statements made by Nicomachus
1. The th perfect number contains exactly digits.
2. Every perfect number is even.
3. The last digit of a perfect number is either 6 or 8.
4. Perfect numbers end, alternately, in 6 and 8.
5. Every perfect number is in Euclid’s form ().
6. There are infinitely many perfect numbers.

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Discovery of subsequent Perfect Numbers
• After the discovery of the first four perfect numbers, it took another
1400 years to find the fifth perfect number.
• The fifth number was found in an anonymous manuscript written in
15th century.
• In Euclid’s form it corresponds to the value .

Fifth perfect number has 8 digits!

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6 th and 7 th Perfect Numbers…
• In 1588 Italian mathematician Pietro Antonio Cataldi found 6 th and 7
th perfect numbers.

The last digit of both and is six!

• Cataldi proved that every even perfect number ends in

6 or 8-but not necessarily alternately.
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Mersenne Primes

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Marin Mersenne
• Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) was a French
mathematician and a priest.
• Wrote a book named Cogitata Physica-Mathematica.
• Studied numbers of the form
• Tried to build good communication among mathematicians.
• In 1635 he formed the informal, private Académie Parisienne (the
precursor to the French Academy of Sciences)
• Gave contribution to mathematics, physics and music theory.

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Mersenne Primes
• Numbers of the form
where
are called as Mersenne Primes.

• Those Mersenne numbers that happen to be prime are said to be

Mersenne primes.
Examples:
, , ,

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Properties of Mersenne Primes
• If is a prime then itself is prime.

• If is a Mersenne prime then is an even Perfect Number.

• If both and are odd primes with then .

For example if = 11, 23, 83, 131, 179, 191, 239 or 251 then is
composite.

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Mersenne’s predicted list of primes
• In Cogitata Physica-Mathematica Mersenne stated that is prime for
= 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 67, 127, 257
and composite for all other primes .

• But Mersenne made five mistakes.

• He erroneously concluded that and are primes and excluded

and which were Mersenne primes.

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Euler’s Contribution

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Leonhard Euler
• Leonhard Euler (1707- 1776) was a Swiss
mathematician, physicist, and astronomer.
• Won the Paris Academy of Sciences prize in 1727.
• Solved the well-known Basel problem in 1735.
• Wrote or dictated over 700 books and research papers
during his lifetime.
• Gave an outstanding contributions to graph theory, number theory,
topology, complex analysis and many other branches in mathematics.

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Euler on Perfect Numbers…
• Euler proved the converse of Euclid’s theorem; that is,
Every even perfect number of the form = () where is an integer.

Combining Euclid’s and Euler’s results,

If is a prime for some integer , then = () is a perfect number and every

even perfect number is of this form.

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Euler on Perfect Numbers…
• In 1772 Euler verified that was a Mersenne prime.
• This leads to the eighth perfect number

• Euler later proved that every divisor of a Mersenne number where is

an odd prime is of the form .

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Some Unsolved Problems

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Are there infinitely many Perfect Numbers?
• The difficulty of finding the perfect numbers convinces their rarity.
• Nicomachus in his Arithmetike stated the existence of infinitely many
perfect numbers without any proof.
• It is not yet known whether there are finitely many or infinitely many
of them.

Conjecture
There are infinitely many perfect numbers.

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Are there infinitely many Mersenne
Numbers?
• It has been conjectured the following.

* There are infinitely many Mersenne primes.

* There are infinitely many Mersenne composites.

• It is clear that at least one of above conjectures must be true.

• If first conjecture is true then it follows that there are infinitely many
perfect numbers.

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Is there any odd perfect number?
• So far 51 perfect numbers have been found and all of them are even..
• Nicomachus in his Arithmetike stated that every perfect number is even.
• Descartes proposed that every perfect number should be even and in
Euclid’s form.
• Even today it is not known whether there are odd perfect numbers.
Conjecture
Odd perfect numbers does not exist.

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Bounds for the least odd perfect number
• Mathematicians tried to give higher-lower bounds for the set of odd
perfect numbers if it is non-empty.
• Numbers up to have been checked without any successful result.

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Timeline of Perfect Numbers

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Timeline of Perfect Numbers

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Questions
1. What is a perfect number?
2. List the first four perfect numbers.
3. State the statements made by Nicomachus about perfect numbers.
4. Who discovered 6 th and 7 th perfect numbers?
5. What is a Mersenne prime?
6. Show that every even perfect number is a triangular number.
7. For any even perfect number , prove that divides where denotes
the sum of positive divisors of for any positive integer .

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References
1. Burton, D.M., (2007). Elementary Number Theory. Tata McGraw-Hill
Education.
2. Shanks, D., 2001. Solved and unsolved problems in number
theory (Vol. 297). American Mathematical Soc..
3. Delello, B.A., (1986). Perfect numbers and Mersenne primes.
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 4894.
4. Eastham, D.T., 1965. On Perfect Numbers.
5. French, D., 2010. Perfect Numbers.

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Thank You!

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