OPEN
This is open, and cannot be resolved with a finite computation.
- $10
Call $n$
weird if $\sigma(n)\geq 2n$ and $n$ is not pseudoperfect, that is, it is not the sum of any set of its divisors.
Are there any odd weird numbers? Are there infinitely many primitive weird numbers, i.e. those such that no proper divisor of $n$ is weird?
The open status of this problem reflects the current belief of the owner of this website. There may be literature on this problem that I am unaware of, which may partially or completely solve the stated problem. Please do your own literature search before expending significant effort on solving this problem. If you find any relevant literature not mentioned here, please add this in a comment.
Weird numbers were investigated by Benkoski and Erdős
[BeEr74], who proved that the set of weird numbers has positive density. The smallest weird number is $70$.
Melfi
[Me15] has proved that there are infinitely many primitive weird numbers, conditional on the fact that $p_{n+1}-p_n<\frac{1}{10}p_n^{1/2}$ for all large $n$, which in turn would follow from well-known conjectures concerning prime gaps.
The sequence of weird numbers is
A006037 in the OEIS. Fang
[Fa22] has shown there are no odd weird numbers below $10^{21}$, and Liddy and Riedl
[LiRi18] have shown that an odd weird number must have at least 6 prime divisors.
If there are no odd weird numbers then every weird number has abundancy index $<4$ (see
[825]).
This is problem B2 in Guy's collection
[Gu04] (the \$10 is reported by Guy, offered by Erdős for a solution to the question of whether any odd weird numbers exist).
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This page was last edited 18 January 2026. View history
Additional thanks to: Desmond Weisenberg
When referring to this problem, please use the original sources of Erdős. If you wish to acknowledge this website, the recommended citation format is:
T. F. Bloom, Erdős Problem #470, https://www.erdosproblems.com/470, accessed 2026-07-03
