What are prime numbers? How are they related to physics? And why should we care about them?
This concise though friendly book contains the answers to the previous questions and many others, explained from an unique point of view. João da Silva begins with a brief review of the history of mathematics, which inevitably introduces the well-known primes.
He tells us that just as atoms are the basic building blocks of matter in our physical universe, prime numbers are their arithmetical counterpart in the world of mathematics.
He then shows that such numbers are everywhere, from the moment we go online to make any sort of electronic transaction and back to the beginning of time itself.