A Perfect Number is number which is the exact sum of all its factors excluding itself and including 1.
The smallest such number is 6 whose factors 1, 2 & 3 add upto 6. Although there maybe a case of considering 1 as a Perfect Number, it is not included in the list of perfect numbers.
In early times, numbers were classified as
- Deficient – if the sum of its factors was less than the number
- Perfect – if the sum of its factors was exactly the same as the number
- Super abundant – If the sum of the factors exceeded the number itself
Perfect numbers being very few were assigned mythical characteristics as well.
Till date 50 such numbers have been discovered (List). So far none of the numbers have been found to be odd, all are even! However, with better computational powers search for more such numbers continues!
Other Links
- Perfect Number (Britannica)
- Perfect Number (Wikipidea)
- Mersenne Prime (Wikipidea)
Previously on LearnNBlog: Because It’s There
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