BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF PRIME NUMBERS

BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF PRIME NUMBERS | REAL LIFE MATHEMATICS

As you probably know “ A number having exactly two factors (one is the unity and another is the number itself), is called A Prime Number. But, have you ever thought what could be the Real Life Applications of Prime Numbers?

Here is the Biological Application of Prime Numbers.

Plant-eating insects called cicadas spend a lot of their life underground in one form, before emerging as adults. In some types (species) of cicada, this appearance occurs at the same time for all the adults in the region, every 13 or 17 years.

13 and 17 are prime numbers. Coincidence?

Scientists who have studied the species of cicadas do not think so. Rather, they think, the use of a prime number for the life cycle has been a response to the pressure put on cicada population by other creatures who utilize them as food. In other words, the cicadas are the prey and the creatures lying in wait when they emerge to the surface are the predators.

Researchers have used mathematical ways to model the so-called predator-prey relationship. Modelling allows them to do experiments in their lab, on the computer, without having to actually go to nature and observe what is happening (which could be very hard to do).

In the mathematical model, the cicadas and their predators had life cycles that were randomly chosen to be different lengths. When both predator and prey were present in high numbers at the same time, it was bad news for the cicadas, as there were lots of hungry predators waiting for the cicadas as they came out of the ground. But, if the emergence of the cicadas occurred when there were not many predators, they had a much better chance of living long enough to mate.

In the computer studies, the researchers found that the best times for the cicadas to emerge from the ground was in life cycles that had prime numbers (e.g., 13 and 17 years). The researchers assert that a life cycle that is 13 or 17 years long increases the cicadas chances of avoiding population depletion. Consider what could happen if their life cycle was 12 years long. If cicada emerged every 12 years, any predator that had a life cycle of numbers that can divide into 12 (such as 2, 3, 4, or 6 years) could be around at the same time the cicadas emerged from the ground. There would be more chance of a hungry predator would be waiting. But, if a life cycle is 13 or 17 years long, a predator’s life cycle also has to be 13 or 17 years long. The odds of that are much less.

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