# Reference Request - Jakob Weisblat's “The Search for the Odd Perfect Number” [closed]

Hi All!

I am currently trying to locate an online copy of Jakob Weisblat's paper titled "The Search for the Odd Perfect Number". I could only get hold of the abstract:

"A perfect number is a number whose proper divisors add up to the number itself. All known perfect numbers are of the form $(2^{p}-1)(2^{p-1})$ where p is prime and $2^{p}-1$ is prime. This talk will consider the possibility of an odd perfect number. After considering criteria for the prime factorization of an odd perfect number, many categories of odds will be eliminated. The remaining categories will then be more thoroughly considered.

The first part of the talk will be my personal research and investigations without having looked at anyone's previous work. Next, interesting previous studies on this matter will be discussed. Finally, my personal work will be compared to the previous analyses, and my research will be extended using this new information."

If anybody out there has a copy or has a web-link to an online copy, would you please be willing to share it? Thanks!

Edit: After taking to Ivars Peterson of MAA, it appears that the author was not required to make a paper submission for his talk. Likewise, the author does not have a publicly available e-mail address. Hence, reflecting quid's suggestion, is a write-up of the author's notes for this talk available somewhere? The author is currently unreachable through Facebook messaging.

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I do not consider this reference request as a very reasonable one. Also did you try to contact the author? Vote to close. –  quid Feb 10 '12 at 11:15
For the record, I inquired with MAA directly, and Ivars Peterson says: "Jakob Weisblat is a high school student in Ohio, and there is no public email address available for him. He presented a short oral talk on the subject at the 2010 MathFest, but he was not required to submit a paper." So I guess I'll go with quid's suggestion to edit the question to ask about "whether there is a write-up of the material presented in the talk". Any way, thanks Gerhard, thanks quid for your comments. Appreciate it... –  Jose Arnaldo Dris Feb 11 '12 at 4:33
It seems strange to me to put so much effort into trying to track this down: a web search shows that it's the abstract for an 8-minute talk by a 14-year-old, which sounds extremely impressive given the speaker's age but gives no indication of containing new results. Without some reason to think there exists a write-up in the first place, I don't see the purpose of this question. –  Henry Cohn Feb 11 '12 at 6:42
For you and me Henry, it might be a bit much. Neither of us is Arnie Dris. For the optimist, the evidence of the talk suffices to suggest the existence of a write-up. I wish Arnie luck. Gerhard "Also Has An OPN Interest" Paseman, 2012.02.10 –  Gerhard Paseman Feb 11 '12 at 7:12
@Gerhard, I was able to get hold of a copy of Jakob's presentation. It is available online via docs.google.com/presentation/d/… –  Jose Arnaldo Dris Mar 15 '12 at 16:00