Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The third video in a trilogy of Mathologer videos dealing with sum-equals-product identities and equations. The other two are:
Way beyond the golden ratio The power of AB=A+B (Mathologer masterclass)
youtu.be/cCXRUHUgvLI
Heron’s formula: What is the hidden meaning of 1 + 2 + 3 = 1 x 2 x 3 ?
youtu.be/IguNXoCjBEk
Today's video is all about how 2+2=2x2 and 1+2+3=1x2x3 first extends to an infinite sequence of similar identities and then further to a whole world of sum-equals-product identities. And we chase down a new connection to the so-called Sophie Germain primes.
00:00 Intro
06:27 How many?
11:29 New from old
19:53 Sophie’s primes
27:47 Beyond Sophie
30:15 Thank you!!
Currently the following paper is the best introduction to the sum-equals-product problem circle of ideas:
Maciej Zakarczemny, On the equal sum and product problem
https://www.iam.fmph.uniba.sk/amuc/ojs/index.php/amuc/article/view/1662
Very nice translation of this circle of ideas into a set of problems for the Michigan Lemma 2020 maths competition (starts with Problem 2)
https://websites.umich.edu/~michiganlemma/material/2020/PowerRound_Solutions.pdf
Check out the Encyclopedia and integer sequences pages for
2,3,4,6,24,114,174,444 and
7,8,9,10,12,14,15,16,18,20,22,30
oeis.org
Some other papers to check out with links:
Michael W. Ecker, When Does a Sum of Positive Integers Equal Their Product?
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0025570X.2002.11953100
M. A. Nyblom, Sophie Germain primes and the exceptional values of the equal-sum-and-product problem
fq.math.ca/Papers1/50-1/Nyblom.pdf
Maciej Zakarczemny, Equal-Sum-Product problem II
cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-mathematical-bulletin/article/equalsumproduct-problem-ii/5A5B79FDCB28A1E83D96DD6BA9147FE2
M. A. Nyblom and C. D. Evans, An Algorithm to Solve the Equal-Sum-Product Problem
arxiv.org/abs/1311.3874
Leo Kurlandchik and Andrzej Nowicki, When the sum equals the product
web.archive.org/web/20230122055244/https://www-users.mat.umk.pl/~anow/ps-dvi/si-krl-a.pdf
Combo class video on the same question youtu.be/aCa5sGEtUCs?si=MxNDotKtCu17RIKS
Check out the list of updates in my comment that's pinned to the top of the comment section.
Music: Just jump by Ian Post
T-shirt: Forgot where I got this one from :(
Enjoy!
Burkard
The third video in a trilogy of Mathologer videos dealing with sum-equals-product identities and equations. The other two are:
Way beyond the golden ratio The power of AB=A+B (Mathologer masterclass)
youtu.be/cCXRUHUgvLI
Heron’s formula: What is the hidden meaning of 1 + 2 + 3 = 1 x 2 x 3 ?
youtu.be/IguNXoCjBEk
Today's video is all about how 2+2=2x2 and 1+2+3=1x2x3 first extends to an infinite sequence of similar identities and then further to a whole world of sum-equals-product identities. And we chase down a new connection to the so-called Sophie Germain primes.
00:00 Intro
06:27 How many?
11:29 New from old
19:53 Sophie’s primes
27:47 Beyond Sophie
30:15 Thank you!!
Currently the following paper is the best introduction to the sum-equals-product problem circle of ideas:
Maciej Zakarczemny, On the equal sum and product problem
https://www.iam.fmph.uniba.sk/amuc/ojs/index.php/amuc/article/view/1662
Very nice translation of this circle of ideas into a set of problems for the Michigan Lemma 2020 maths competition (starts with Problem 2)
https://websites.umich.edu/~michiganlemma/material/2020/PowerRound_Solutions.pdf
Check out the Encyclopedia and integer sequences pages for
2,3,4,6,24,114,174,444 and
7,8,9,10,12,14,15,16,18,20,22,30
oeis.org
Some other papers to check out with links:
Michael W. Ecker, When Does a Sum of Positive Integers Equal Their Product?
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0025570X.2002.11953100
M. A. Nyblom, Sophie Germain primes and the exceptional values of the equal-sum-and-product problem
fq.math.ca/Papers1/50-1/Nyblom.pdf
Maciej Zakarczemny, Equal-Sum-Product problem II
cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-mathematical-bulletin/article/equalsumproduct-problem-ii/5A5B79FDCB28A1E83D96DD6BA9147FE2
M. A. Nyblom and C. D. Evans, An Algorithm to Solve the Equal-Sum-Product Problem
arxiv.org/abs/1311.3874
Leo Kurlandchik and Andrzej Nowicki, When the sum equals the product
web.archive.org/web/20230122055244/https://www-users.mat.umk.pl/~anow/ps-dvi/si-krl-a.pdf
Combo class video on the same question youtu.be/aCa5sGEtUCs?si=MxNDotKtCu17RIKS
Check out the list of updates in my comment that's pinned to the top of the comment section.
Music: Just jump by Ian Post
T-shirt: Forgot where I got this one from :(
Enjoy!
Burkard






![What does this prove? Some of the most gorgeous visual shrink proofs ever invented
Bit of a mystery Mathologer today with the title of the video not giving away much. Anyway it all starts with the quest for equilateral triangles in square grids and by the end of it we find ourselves once more in the realms of irrationality. This video contains some extra gorgeous visual proofs that hardly anybody seems to know about.
0:00 Intro
0:47 First puzzle
2:24 Second puzzle
3:50 Edward Lucas
4:41 Equilateral triangles
13:15 3d & 3rd puzzle
19:52 30 45 60
29:31 Credits
Here are links to/references of some of the things I mention in the video:
Joel Hamkins blog posts that inspired this video:
http://jdh.hamkins.org/no-regular-polygons-in-the-integer-lattice/
http://jdh.hamkins.org/no-regular-polygons-in-the-hexagonal-lattice/
There is also a whole chapter about all this and much more related maths in his new book
https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Mathematics-Joel-David-Hamkins/dp/0262539799
Here is another really good article which includes a nice characterisation of the triangles that can be found in square grids plus a very good survey of relevant results:
Michael J. Beeson, Triangles with Vertices on Lattice Points, The American Mathematical Monthly 99 (1992), 243-252, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2325060?seq=1
Scherrers and Hadwingers articles:
Scherrer, Willy, Die Einlagerung eines regulären Vielecks in ein Gitter, Elemente der Mathematik 1 (1946), 97-98.
https://tinyurl.com/y45p64t7
https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN378850199_0001?tify={%22pages%22:[101]}
Hadwiger, Hugo Über die rationalen Hauptwinkel der Goniometrie, Elemente der Mathematik 1 (1946), 98-100.
https://tinyurl.com/yx98kkqt
https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN378850199_0001?tify={%22pages%22:[102],%22view%22:%22info%22}
Another, nice paper on rational (and algebraic) cosines
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1006.2938.pdf
Here is a solution to the first puzzle (one way to find the general formula):
https://nrich.maths.org/657/solution
The music in this video is by Chris Haugen, Fresh Fallen Snow (playing in the video) and Morning Mandolin (for the credits)
A couple of remarks:
1. Probably the simplest way to deduce the sin and tan parts of the rational trig ratio theorem is to realise that they follow from the cos part via the trigonometric identities: sin(x)=cos(90-x) and tan^2(x) = (1-cos(2x))/(1+cos(2x)). Note that the second identity implies that if tan(x) is rational, then cos(2x) is rational (if tan(x)=c/d, then tan^2(x)=c^2/d^2=C/D and cos(2x)=(D-C)/(D+C)).
2. Bug report.
a) Here I redefine cos(120◦) = 1.
https://youtu.be/sDfzCIWpS7Q?t=1362
Remarkable :(
b) This transition to the good stuff I clearly did not think through properly.
https://youtu.be/sDfzCIWpS7Q?t=1018
Its possible to make this work for all regular n-gons. There is only one complication that occurs for ns that are of the form 2 * odd. For the corresponding regular n-gons, if you pick up the edges in the order that they appear around the n-gon and assemble them into a star, things close up into (n/2)-stars. For all other n, things work exactly as I showed in the video. Having said that you can also assemble the edges of one of the exceptions into stars. Have a look at this https://imgur.com/68A3fEe and youll get the idea. Anyway lots more nice side puzzles to be explored here if you are interested :)
Enjoy!
Burkard
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14. Sep. 2021: Thank you very much Michael Didenko for your Russian subtitles. What does this prove? Some of the most gorgeous visual shrink proofs ever invented](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sDfzCIWpS7Q/mqdefault.jpg)



