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Zebra
Skeptic Friend

USA
354 Posts
Posted - 09/27/2008 :  23:01:20  Show Profile Send Zebra a Private Message  Reply with Quote
You can put down your pencils. There seems to be a winner in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search!

The winner is: UCLA, in this corner, with a newly-discovered prime number which is 13 million digits long. (Give or take a few.)

Full story here. I do apologize that this version has the details the general public might want, but may not be detailed enough for the mathematicians among us. Importantly, though, it does also show where Los Angeles is located, on a map of Southern California.


(I wasn't sure what category this best fit into. But a 13-million digit number might be considered by some to be "astronomically" large...so here it is.)


Edited to add: More details here. Form of Mersenne Primes is: (2 exp P) - 1
where P is also a prime number. The newly discovered prime has P = 43,112,609.
I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney

*some restrictions may apply
Edited by - Zebra on 09/27/2008 23:06:28

Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts
Posted - 09/28/2008 :  09:06:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The great thing about Mersenne Primes is that the idea is not deep at all, so the public can understand, much like Fermat's Last Theorem. The bad thing about them is that the idea is not deep at all, so I wouldn't really call this an advance in mathematics. But still pretty cool.
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9688 Posts
Posted - 09/28/2008 :  13:50:10   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Right, Ricky. It's just an exercise in number-crunching. Which in itself is a major feat. But I'd say that's more an engineering problem than a mathematics problem.
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
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"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts
Posted - 09/28/2008 :  14:16:09   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
The horse's mouth.

The next prizes will be given out for 100,000,000- and billion-decimal primes, so pick your pencils back up.
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts
Posted - 09/29/2008 :  11:57:27   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse

Right, Ricky. It's just an exercise in number-crunching. Which in itself is a major feat. But I'd say that's more an engineering problem than a mathematics problem.


Not exactly Mab. Primality testing and theorems have deep results not only in number theory, but also algebra and analysis. Running the program itself is not as exciting as coming up with the algorithm. That's where the mathematics takes place.

It is also the classic problem for distributed systems, in which a whole lot of other mathematics takes place, as well as of course computer science.
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard

3192 Posts
Posted - 09/29/2008 :  16:20:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send BigPapaSmurf a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Astronomical may be an understatment as we figured there was far less than 10^100 particles in the universe.
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History

"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini
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