Prime Number Visualization Simulation Spiral
numbersimulation.com
numbersimulation.com
I feel bad saying this, because it probably took a lot of work to make, but this prime number spiral is kind of pointless. What is it showing me? If I let the painfully slow animation run for a while, and look at the bigger picture, what insight will I gain about prime numbers? Probably nothing.
It's even a bit misleading, because to the best of my knowledge, there's no connection between spirals and prime numbers.
If I'm just being dense and not getting it, I'd love for somebody to explain it to me.
You just shot yourself in the foot :( Yes, there is a connection. If you add up the total distance each line makes in a tick, its equivalent to the harmonic series, which is a special case of the zeta function. This is where the spiral comes from. Its a dirct consequence of the fact that each number has period 1/n. The spiral emerges naturally, its not programmed or forced into that shape.
It may look neat, but it doesn't make any of those connections apparent.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Ulam_1.pn...
The creator of that one links to a Geocities page (which doesn't exist anymore, of course), but I think that page probably moved here: http://www.magic-squares.net/moreprimes.htm#A%20Prime%20Circ...
Edit: I will go back and fine tune the video so it syncs to the music.