The special characteristics of prime numbers have intrigued and confounded mathematicians since ancient times. Outlining the basics of primes—including their unique multiplicative properties and their supposedly random appearance in the number line—this program details the early history of prime number theory, beginning with discoveries that took place in the Hellenistic world. The film illustrates how the torch of Euclid’s work passed to 18th- and 19th-century Europeans, exploring Carl Friedrich Gauss’ groundbreaking work in the prediction of prime numbers and introducing Bernhard’s Riemann’s revolutionary zeta function. Produced by the Open University. (27 minutes)