Bertrand's postulate Also known as Betrand's conjecture, if n is an integer greater than 3, then there is at least one prime number between n and 2n-2. This postulate (which should now be called a theorem) is named after the French mathematician Joseph Bertrand (1822-1900) who, in 1845, showed it was true for values of n up to 3,000,000. The Russian Pafnuty Chebyshev (1821-1894) gave the first complete proof in 1850, so that it is sometimes called Chebyshev's theorem (although another theorem also goes by this name). In 1932 Paul Erdös gave a more elegant proof, using the binomial coefficients, which is the one that appears in most modern textbooks. Bertrand's postulate implies that the n-th prime pn is at most 2n. Related category PRIME NUMBERS Also on this site: Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living Encyclopedia of History |