Discussion Room : IDC101

Challenging Problems

Re: Challenging Problems

by Dr. Amit Kulshrestha -
Number of replies: 0

Let me pose a problem here. I am not sure if it is there on Project Euler, but I am sure Project Euler has many problems which have similar taste.

Consider the function \pi, where \pi(n) is the number of primes \leq n. Denote \pi^2(n) = \pi(\pi(n)), \pi^3(n) = \pi(\pi(\pi(n))), and so on. This gives a strictly decreasing sequence, and hence \pi^r(n) = 2 for some r. This r depends on n. I would take a liberty to call this r the \pi-length of n and the sequence \pi(n), \pi^2(n), \pi^3(n), \cdots, \pi^2(n) = 2, the \pi-sequence of n?

Now I can ask several questions.

  1. Find a prime number whose \pi-sequence consists only of prime numbers? Larger the better!
  2. Find a natural number whose \pi-sequence contains no prime other than 2. Again, larger the better.
  3. Among the natural numbers \leq 10000, which one has largest \pi-length?
  4. Plot the function \pi-length.

I am sure you may also ask plenty of questions based on this.

Enjoy Pythoning!