In number theory, Skewes' number is any of several extremely large numbers used by the South African mathematician Stanley Skewes as upper bounds for the smallest natural number x for which
where π is the prime-counting function and li is the logarithmic integral function. These bounds have since been improved by others: there is a crossing near . It is not known whether it is the smallest.
Read more about Skewes' Number: Skewes' Numbers, More Recent Estimates, Riemann's Formula
Famous quotes containing the word number:
“This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound off with a sermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took the first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest effort of the evening.... It may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in which the word “beauteous” was over-fondled, and human experience referred to as “life’s page,” was up to the usual average.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)