Light Through the Holes: Sieves, Strikes, and the Price of Seeing Primes is about one of the oldest ideas in mathematics. Write down the numbers, cross out the multiples, and the primes are whatever is left, like light coming through the holes.
The idea that keeps coming back
The sieve of Eratosthenes is more than two thousand years old, and versions of it still do serious work today. The book follows the sieve through history: what each new version improved, what it cost to run, and why the basic move of striking out instead of testing one number at a time is so powerful. Each strike serves the whole range at once, so the work is shared rather than repeated.
The price of seeing
The subtitle is the real subject. Seeing a prime is never free. Every method pays somewhere, in time, in memory, or in work done up front, and the book keeps track of where that bill lands. It finishes with my own Lumens Per Watt project, an attempt to measure exactly that price.
Watch it free
The cover is my artwork Nihil Opera. The full book is free as a scrolling-text read-along on YouTube, and it has its own theme song, also called “Light Through the Holes”, with a demoscene music video.
Watch free: Light Through the Holes read-along on YouTube
All my books: the Books page
