Another Breakthrough in Prime Number Theory

Battal Boy writes "From aimath.org: Dan Goldston and his Turkish colleague Yalcin Cem Yildirim have smashed all previous records on the size of small gaps between prime numbers. This work is a major step toward the centuries-old problem of showing that there are infinitely many 'twin primes': prime numbers which differ by 2, such as 11 and 13, 17 and 19, 29 and 31,...I am especially proud of this achievement as Yalcin is a close friend of mine from way back! You may also want to check out the Mercury News Article and Dan Goldston's home page where you can see a photo of Dan's back being slowly but surely broken by two of his children ..." Finding patterns in primes seems to be all the rage.

Comments

Interesting?

[ChaoticChaos]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

How about calculating the rate of ring growth in trees as well? How about the speed that paint will dry at various temperatures? ;-)

Re:Interesting?

[Epistax]

Don't make fun of this. This is vitally important. Finally we'll know.. wait what are we doing again? Prime number theory? Fuck it gimmie a beer

Re:Interesting?

[chimpo13]

this joke?

An engineer, physicist, and mathematician are all challenged with a problem: to fry an egg when there is a fire in the house. The engineer just grabs a huge bucket of water, runs over to the fire, and puts it out. The physicist thinks for a long while, and then measures a precise amount of water into a container. He takes it over to the fire, pours it on, and with the last drop the fire goes out. The mathematician pores over pencil and paper. After a few minutes he goes "Aha! A solution exists!" and goes back to frying the egg.

Sequel: This time they are asked simply to fry an egg (no fire). The engineer just does it, kludging along; the physicist calculates carefully and produces a carefully cooked egg; and the mathematician lights a fire in the corner, and says "I have reduced it to the previous problem."

Re:Interesting?

[Squareball]

It's posts like these that make me wish there was a mod option of "What the??" I am lost lol ;)

Re:Interesting?

[matt4077]

How about calculating the rate of ring growth in trees as well?

One per year.

See you in stockholm!

Re:Interesting?

[telstar]

"Fuck it gimmie a beer"

• Beer ... the cause of - and solution to - all life's problems.
• 
  
  -Homer Simpson
  
  Maybe we can use it to figure out this prime number thingy.

Re:Interesting?

[isorox]

new encryption tech can be based on those new theories

And the terrorists will win! Quick, ban math!

Are there secondary numbers?

[eenglish_ca]

Ok, so there are infinite twin prime numbers but what about secondary numbers? Have we just given up on them?

Patterns in primes?

[TobiasSodergren]

Here I thought the patterns-in-primes thing was already solved by Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey..

Re:Patterns in primes?

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd probably be correct if you were referring to this movie instead of this one.

Slashdotted?

[cyb97]

Funny, I can't see their server getting slashdotted anytime soon...

This just in...

[yellowstone]

2^3-1 is prime! Now checking 2^3+1...

Moo

[Chacham]

I was waiting for a better time to break this, but I guess now is good to. I have made a groundbreaking discovery in prime numbers.

No prime numbers can be divided by any number that falls inbetween the number one and the number itself! And, even more exciting, a rule that applies to all prime numbers. All prime numbers can be factored with the number one, but none can be divided by zero.

I hope none of you had anything important "encrypted" with PGP. Just stick to padless one-time pads for *real* security.

After I get the National Math Foundation to classify two as an odd number (and it is really odd considering it's the only even prime number) I'll have my third discovery that all prime numbers are odd validated.

I'd love to post more, but I really must get back to working on my perpetual motion machine. I was so close before, but recently I seem to have lost my bearings. Once I'm done I'll be heralded as the greatest man in the realm of science friction.

Interesting?

[rugwuk]

This is more interesting than watching paint dry actually! I am waiting for the the paint to dry in my kitchen and i'm reading this instead :-)

Next step

[pdan]

Next step is to find prime numbers differing by 1.

Re:Next step

[Yokaze]

I'll start: 2 and 3. You'll have to find the next pair.

Re:Next step

[jpkunst]

OK: 1 and 2. You're next.

Allright

[Anonymous Coward]

There is an infinite number of twin primes. Can we go blame Microsoft now?

Re:Moo moo?

[saskboy]

How exactly does one hold on to frictionless bearings? Do you use [http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?id=2 74]Johnson & Johnson plastic wraps to stick to them?

http://www.math.utah.edu/~cherk/mathjokes.html
Several scientists were asked to prove that all odd integers higher than 2 are prime.

Mathematician: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, and by induction - every odd integer higher than 2 is a prime.
Physicist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an experimental error, 11 is a prime. Just to be sure, try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime...
Engineer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an approximation to a prime, 11 is a prime,...
Programmer (reading the output on the screen): 3 is a prime, 3 is a prime, 3 a is prime, 3 is a prime....
Biologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 -- results have not arrived yet,...
Psychologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime but tries to suppress it,...
Chemist (or Dan Quayle): What's a prime?
Politician: "Some numbers are prime.. but the goal is to create a kinder, gentler society where all numbers are prime... "
Programmer: "Wait a minute, I think I have an algorithm from Knuth on finding prime numbers... just a little bit longer, I've found the last bug... no, that's not it... ya know, I think there may be a compiler bug here - oh, did you want IEEE-998.0334 rounding or not? - was that in the spec? - hold on, I've almost got it - I was up all night working on this program, ya know... now if management would just get me that new workstation tha just came out, I'd be done by now... etc., etc. ..."

So i guess you'd call those...

[Anonymous Coward]

Partners in Prime ;)

Mis-statement

[Ancil]

smashed all previous records on the size of small gaps between prime numbers

That record is held by the prime numbers 2 and 3, and it's a record not likely to be broken.

His timing obviously relates to his kids age :-)

[oren]

"A hint of his sense of humor can be found on his Web site, which features a photo of Goldston, seemingly dozing off, as two small kids climb on his back. He and his wife, Ryoko, have three children -- Shota, 7, Aiko, 5, and Makoto, 3."

Can we can expect his next theorem to deal with prime triplets?