The Riemann Hypothesis, Explained

The Riemann Hypothesis is the most notorious unsolved problem in all of mathematics. Ever since it was first proposed by Bernhard Riemann in 1859, the conjecture has maintained the status of the "Holy Grail" of mathematics. The person who solves it will win a $1 million prize from the Clay Institute of Mathematics. So, what is the Riemann Hypothesis? Why is it so important? What can it tell us about the chaotic universe of prime numbers? And why is its proof so elusive? Alex Kontorovich, professor of mathematics at Rutgers University, breaks it all down in this comprehensive explainer.

00:00 A glimpse into the mystery of the Riemann Hypothesis
01:42 The world of prime numbers
02:30 Carl Friedrich Gauss looks for primes, Prime Counting Function
03:30 Logarithm Function and Gauss's Conjecture
04:39 Leonard Euler and infinite series
06:30 Euler and the Zeta Function
07:30 Bernhard Riemann enters the prime number picture
08:18 Imaginary and complex numbers
09:40 Complex Analysis and the Zeta Function
10:25 Analytic Continuation: two functions at work at once
11:14 Zeta Zeros and the critical strip
12:20 The critical line
13:04 Riemann's Hypothesis shows the distribution of prime numbers can be predicted
14:59 The search for a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis

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