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New Largest Prime Found: Over 7 Million Digits

Jeff Gilchrist writes "On May 15, 2004, Josh Findley discovered the 41st known Mersenne Prime, 2 to the 24,036,583th power minus 1. The number is nearly a million digits larger than our last find and is now the largest known prime number! Josh's calculation took just over two weeks on his 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 computer. The new prime was verified by Tony Reix in just 5 days using only half the power of a Bull NovaScale 5000 HPC running Linux on 16 Itanium II 1.3 GHz CPUs. A second verification was completed by Jeff Gilchrist of Elytra Enterprises Inc. in Ottawa, Canada using eleven days of time on a HP rx5670 quad Itanium II 1.5 GHz CPU server at SHARCNET. Both verifications used Guillermo Ballester Valor's Glucas program." Read on for more on the discovery, including how you can help find more primes.

Gilchrist continues "If you want to see the number in written in decimal, Perfectly Scientific, Dr. Crandall's company which developed the FFT algorithm used by GIMPS, makes a poster you can order containing the entire number. It is kind of pricey because accurately printing an over-sized poster in 1-point font is not easy! Makes a cool present for the serious math nut in your family.

For more information, the press release is available.

Congratulations to Josh and every GIMPS contributor for their part in this remarkable find. You can download the client for your chance at finding the next world record prime! A forum for newcomers is available to answer any questions you may have.

GIMPS is closing in on the $100,000 Electronic Frontier Foundation award for the first 10-million-digit prime. The new prime is 72% of the size needed, however an award-winning prime could be mere weeks or as much as few years away - that's the fun of math discoveries, said GIMPS founder George Woltman. The GIMPS participant who discovers the prime will receive $50,000. Charity will get $25,000. The rest will be used primarily to fund more prime discoveries. In May 2000, a previous participant won the foundation's $50,000 award for discovering the first million-digit prime."

305 comments

  1. Legit uses for Mersenne Primes by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Funny
    It's gonna be a little obvious to crackers when I use two mersenne primes to help create my public and private keys.

    But Pseudoprimes? Probability of primeness? Hah! You people cut corners!

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:Legit uses for Mersenne Primes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
      It's gonna be a little obvious to crackers when I use two mersenne primes to help create my public and private keys.

      Don't use one that's based on factoring, then. Go for a discrete-logarithm based cryptosystem, like ElGamal. Mmmm... 23-megabit asymmetric key... (Now we just need a 3-megabit hash function to make the signatures worthwhile. Oh, and some serious silicon to push the electrons required for a digital signature with a key that size. Ooog.)

    2. Re:Legit uses for Mersenne Primes by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Funny

      Forget keys. Now I have to change the luggage combination again.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  2. I hate to be a pushover... by Capt'n+Hector · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... but why exactly is this so important? Can we use this number in any way, or is it just another prime?

    --
    Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
    Africus aut Europaeus?
    1. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by barcodez · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well we can make a perfect number with it.

      Every Mersenne prime gives rise to a perfect number.

      To answer your question a little more seriously the number is not much use in itself but like many peices of research the route to the goal often turns out more interesting information than the goal. GIMPS pushes back the bounds on many levels such as highly optimised coding and mathematical DC.

      --

      ----
    2. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by irokitt · · Score: 5, Funny
      This is of course an attempt to impress chicks.

      Hey baby, did you know I discovered the longest prime number?


      Notice I said it's an attempt, I didn't say it would work;)
      --
      If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
    3. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by DarkHelmet · · Score: 4, Informative
      A mersenne prime is the easiest form of prime to prove (easy being least computationally expensive).

      So right now, this is the largest proven prime number at this point in time. It is 1,000,000 digits larger than the next largest known prime number, (which is also a mersenne prime).

      There very well may be a day where primes this large will be used for encryption purposes. But this may be a long way off.

      Keep in mind, that so much of the underpinnings of today is based on mathematics from the 1600's to the early 1900's. The math we pursue today will most likely reach a practical application point next century.

      --
      /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    4. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by vrmlguy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, you can use it to make a *really* big RSA encryption key.

      --
      Nothing for 6-digit uids?
    5. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by mldl · · Score: 1

      The real reason is to show off how long our digital penis' are on the user page and the top producers pages.

      What better way is there to pick up girls than to say you're the biggest GIMP on the planet?

    6. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by eidechse · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Binary math was once thought to be a useless curiousity.

    7. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by eidechse · · Score: 1

      Correction: "curiosity".

    8. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by ezzzD55J · · Score: 1

      As was algorithmics. Not so useless now! :)

    9. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Hey baby, did you know I discovered the longest prime number?

      Or, "What the hell are all those digits tatto'ed to your dick?"

    10. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by kunudo · · Score: 3, Funny

      "To answer your question a little more seriously the number is not much use in itself but like many peices of research the route to the goal often turns out more interesting information than the goal."

      Kinda kicks you in the ass when people say "ok, what good is it?"

      I know what good it is. It's a way of keeping 'scientists' employed (scientific welfare) so they don't pollute the job and gene pools.

      I'm considering doin research on the 'how', 'why', and 'classification' of belly button lint. I'm sure there's a government funded grant in it. We REALLY NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS 'just in case' they are usefull in the future.



      Yeah, let's keep the scientists out of the gene pool, maybe even replace them with Christian Scientists(tm). I mean, why would we want people to have even the slightest hint of intellegence, I mean, the public, dear lord. You should let the current administration know you have devised such an excellect scheme for them...

      Not that I'm saying this guy is a scientist, but whatever... Oh yeah, and you're a troll, but I couldn't help myself.

    11. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can make good random number generators out of them. (All you need is to find a primitive root of it.)

    12. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by azav · · Score: 3, Informative

      And why do we care about the perfect numbers?

      In the end, what does this get us?

      Please elaborate for those of us who need a reason to care about primes, perfect numbers & the like.

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    13. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by shigelojoe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Which is why I'd hate to be a math student in the 22nd century:

      Teacher: Ok class, your homework for tomorrow is to find a Mersenne prime longer than 1,000,000 digits. *By hand*. I don't want to see any computer printouts.

      Class: *Groan*

    14. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nothing. And we all die, too. Might as well kill yourself right now, avoid all the unnecessary hassle of life. Ya know.

    15. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not sure about perfect numbers, but primes are used in certain public-key cryptography schemes like RSA. Of course a prime as large as that mersenne prime isn't of much use in RSA as the primes they use there are never usually bigger than 512 digits (4096 bits) which is more than adequate if chosen with care.

      Oh, and more specifically (correct me if I'm wrong, I probably am) using mersenne primes (ie primes of the form 2^p-1) prevent certain factorization algorithms from succeeding. And if you manage to factor n (part of the public key in RSA) you've broken the cipher and can obtain the private key and decipher.

    16. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lamest sig EVER

    17. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So that when aliens from Vega contact us, we know what the primes are up to "2 to the 24,036,583th power minus 1"

    18. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by fataugie · · Score: 1
      In the end, what does this get us?

      Uhhhh, a great burn-in program for CPU's for one thing.....money for another

      --

      WTF? Over?

    19. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Funny
      I have pi tattooed on my dick. It usually says 3.14, but man when it gets angry, it goes all the way to 3.141!

      Wait, I didn't tell that right.

    20. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by stevesliva · · Score: 1

      Are Mersennes really the easiest numbers to prove prime? Why? I figured they'd merely be the easiest to guess. Proving they have no factors, though...

      --
      Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
    21. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1, Funny

      And we will send them Jodie Foster, and they will send her back with a message saying "no no. We wanted Natalie Portman."

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    22. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glad to see bigotry is alive and well on Slashdot.

      Hooray for intellectual thinking.

    23. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by bendelo · · Score: 1

      The sig is good, it just shouldn't be multi-line. Gotta love Red Dwarf :)

    24. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By the way, your sig is wrong: you are trying to set a shell variable while prepended by $.

    25. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 3, Funny

      But remember the original question. What are they good for.

      In other words, it's not the size of your prime number, it's how you use it that counts.

      --

      ___
      It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
    26. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by SamSim · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I consider it an extremely good way to attempt to impress chicks, since chicks who are impressed by this kind of thing are more likely to be chicks.

    27. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by SamSim · · Score: 1

      *GEEK* chicks. Grrrrr.

    28. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Excellent. For the other prime, I shall use 3.

    29. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by WalksOnDirt · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Are Mersennes really the easiest numbers to prove prime?"

      Yes, because of the Lucas Lehmer primality test, which you can google if you want to see the details.

      The standard proof of primality involves factoring the number one less than or one greater than the prime. Obviously, the number one greater than 2^p-1 is easily factored, which is the basis of the test.

      --
      a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
    30. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by tannable75 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I can just see it now. Women saying "you should see what my husband thinks is a 10 million digit prime. No wonder he can't figure out how to leave a tip in resteraunts.

    31. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please tell me that you aren't that moronic, that instead its all a giant act.

      If we had things your way, you'd have a lifetime expectancy of 25, and you would be working the wheat fields for a lord or duke.

      And to top it off, you cannot even spell useful correctly.

    32. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just wondering...

      How would a highly publicised number be useful for encryption? As I understand it, (current) encryption works because there is a large keyspace a cracker has to search through to find the key to decrypt with; if he knew, for example, that the key is somehere between say 5 million and 10 million digita long and is publicised, wouldn't he be able to test against a much smaller keyspace? (At least, much smaller than 10^10 million)

    33. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is it important? Well, 2^24,036,583-1 might be 7 million digits, but 24,036,583 is only 8 digits.

      Think about it... an 8 digit number. Wouldn't that be perfect to use as a launch code?

    34. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. I really don't understand why we have to go on and on trying to find new prime numbers while we haven't even used up half of the old ones yet.

    35. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by jayhawk88 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're not useful now, but in another 200 years when we're all carrying around pocket quantum machines it may be useful.

    36. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by blingbing · · Score: 1

      In other words, it's not the size of your prime number, it's how you use it that counts. obviously your girlfriend has been lying to you.

    37. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by matlhDam · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm considering doin research on the 'how', 'why', and 'classification' of belly button lint. I'm sure there's a government funded grant in it. We REALLY NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS 'just in case' they are usefull in the future.

      Sadly, you've been beaten to it.

    38. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Markus+Landgren · · Score: 4, Informative

      I am not sure about any use for perfect numbers, but the Mersenne primes themselves can be used to create random number generators with extremely long periods. That takes some additional work, although not as much work as finding this prime among tens of thousands of composite candidates.

    39. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Religion has nothing to do with intellectual thinking. People seem to assume that religion is somehow important for whatever reason. I have yet to find an important use for literal belief in fantasy stories.

    40. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by hutkey · · Score: 0

      it can be used in any of the M$ messages,

      "enter any 7 million digit prime number to continue..."

      imagine the horror on the user's face(besides using the OS, i.e.)

    41. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by ComaVN · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Don't say that out loud on a star trek convention.

      --
      Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
    42. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by ciryon · · Score: 1

      In the Information Theory-course I'm currently taking we're forced to do RSA calculations by hand. Now we're not talking mersenne primes though. ;-)

      *back to studies*

      Ciryon

    43. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by NineteenSixtyNine · · Score: 0

      I don't know if I trust anything from Wolfram & Heart.

      --

      --
      What would Bill Clinton do?
    44. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      twos and twos makes fours, twos and twos makes fours ... all the maths I needses, yes ... big, scary numbersss, we don'ts needs them ... no, no, noooo ... dems scaaary numbersses they are ...

    45. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by jlp2097 · · Score: 1

      Informative??
      I really didn't want to be informed about that. Now I'm stuck all day getting this picture out of my head.

    46. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by MoeDrippins · · Score: 1

      Sing it with me, "...absolutely nothin'. Say it agaaaain! Primes! Hua! What are they good for..."

      With apologies to Edwin Starr, and Bruce Springsteen (who SHOULD have apologized to Edwin Starr, after his shameless, crappy, self-aggrandizing political commentary wannabe remake).

      --
      Before you design for reuse, make sure to design it for use.
    47. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by SpacePunk · · Score: 1

      Dannit! Dammit all to hell! My lifes work destroyed!

    48. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by billstewart · · Score: 1
      One of my friends discovered at least _two_ of the Mersenne primes.

      I don't know about impressing chicks, but I used to run GIMPS on my work laptop, and that did impress one of my customers :-) I had to turn the stuff off when I was running demos for them, and even though I'm no longer working on that account, I occasionally bump into them and they've commented on it years later...

      --

      Bill Stewart
      New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
    49. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      It is a well observed fact that higher education and intelligence are factors that lead to lower birth rates.

      It seems like the scientists themselves have beaten our would-be troll to the punch.

      I propose a system where for each point over 140 of IQ you have you are forced into monthly reproductive congress with a less than intelligent, vapid and self centered, yet nubile and stunningly gorgeous member of the opposite sex who happens to be at least 10 years younger than you are (down to the limit for legality except in Louisiana where the lower limit will be set at the vastly higher standard of 17 years of age).

      The purpose of this is obvious. No this is not a new system of eugenics designed to raise the IQ of the world. It is quite simply the only way that many of us will ever get laid.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    50. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you should have rounded up to 3.142.

    51. Re:I hate to be a pushover... by MurphyZero · · Score: 1

      You know when people ask what purpose does it serve to find these things, always remember how many people are involved in finding out what J-Lo and the like are up to on a daily basis. I bet you'll find that many more people are involved with the J-Lo questions, but that the total IQ is probably similar.

      --
      Our founding fathers removed the guys in charge. Be American. Vote incumbents out.
  3. In case you missed it by barcodez · · Score: 4, Informative

    The GIMPS Project found this prime. You too can contribute by downloading the client (for various OSes).

    Thought I would drive the point home as this is a great DC project that doesn't receive half the attention of some of the more dubious DC projects...

    --

    ----
    1. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      I think I might have a faint idea why. Let's see... do i want to use my spare CPU power to:
      • Search for intelligent aliens?
      • Find a cure for cancer?
      or
      • Calculate a really fucking big, really fucking useless number?
    2. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Good thing you mentioned that the GIMPS project was behind this and told us where the client could be downloaded, since neither information was available in the write-up.

      Phew, crisis averted. Good job! :) :) :) :)

    3. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      The GIMPS Project found this prime. You too can contribute by downloading the client (for various OSes).

      Both of these "informative" bits were in the text!

    4. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but it's not as good as Photoshop.

      Oh, wait. GIMPS! Never mind.

    5. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not downloading anything like this unless you can justify it.

      What does the world benefit from having a large prime number?

    6. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All the planets are doing it these days. We don't want Earth to be left out, do we?

    7. Re:In case you missed it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      The first post was moderated as Redundant, and the most redundant post in the history of /. is moderated Informative. The moderation system have failed miserably. Mod points are given to idiots who can't think to save their lives, and this is what happens. I've pointed out bad moderations before, but they don't seem to pay any attention.

      Moderators, please tell me what is going on in your little heads. I really want to know. It's not hard to moderate properly, you know... You have the opportunity to motivate your actions, but I suspect you wont take it. You'll just mod me down instead, thinking that is a good substitute for explaining your actions.

    8. Re:In case you missed it by VanillaCoke420 · · Score: 1

      I'd rather look for ETI instead of searching for large prime numbers.

  4. Even primes by Devil's+BSD · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm still searching for that even prime number bigger than 2...

    --
    I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
    1. Re:Even primes by mr_jim83 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You keep looking. I'll wait here.

    2. Re:Even primes by DarkHelmet · · Score: 2, Funny
      I'm still searching for that even prime number bigger than 2...

      Proof of that will require a recalled grey market Pentium 1 with an FDIV "feature" added to it.

      All math people wishing to prove / find your number must also "upgrade"

      --
      /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    3. Re:Even primes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Totally OT, so posting as AC.

      a recalled grey market Pentium 1 with an FDIV "feature"

      I can't be the only one who kept one of these CPUs around .. I came across a 60Mhz Pentium a few years ago that Linux claimed had the FDIV bug. I quickly pulled it, and am now waiting for it to to be worth millions...

    4. Re:Even primes by PacoTaco · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dude, Pentium FDIV jokes are like 9.99904274017 years old. It's time to think of something new.

    5. Re:Even primes by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 2, Funny

      There's a 99.2104999424999% chance that you fail it.

      --
      Ron Paul 2012
    6. Re:Even primes by daveashcroft · · Score: 1

      if only there was a way to represent that shitty 4-tone intel tune in text!

    7. Re:Even primes by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      why are you searching for a prime larger than 2 when they have already proved through contradiction that it can not exist.

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    8. Re:Even primes by 6digitdotter · · Score: 1

      That's a joke, son!! Any of this gettin' through to ya, son?

    9. Re:Even primes by Stunning+Tard · · Score: 1

      .@@@
      @ @
      @
      @
      @
      @@@@@

    10. Re:Even primes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me know if you find a buyer! I have mine and the mobo + RAM for it also! I was going to give it to the Simthsonian...

  5. Start checking at 2**1FaE2D1h by Thinkit4 · · Score: 1

    That's where the money starts kicking in for these types of primes.

    --
    -I am an elective eunuch.
    1. Re:Start checking at 2**1FaE2D1h by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      most certainly, i already made tons of bucks

  6. Distributed Computing? by drskrud · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does anyone know if a distributed computing project exists for finding large prime numbers? That would be a pretty cool way to spend some CPU cylces.

    1. Re:Distributed Computing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      GIMPS

    2. Re:Distributed Computing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is damn Lazy. Were not even talking about RTFA, you didn't finish the damn submission text.

    3. Re:Distributed Computing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nah, i side with the parent poster. the submission text didnt really say anything about what GIMPS was (for some reason I thought of Gimp, the image processing program), nor did any of the links say that GIMPS was a DC program either.

    4. Re:Distributed Computing? by Squirrley · · Score: 0

      wtf?!? how is the parent offtopic? isn't that what the article's about?

      --
      Go on, be afraid. Encourage the terrorists
    5. Re:Distributed Computing? by tsadi · · Score: 1
      Parent was unfairly moderated as Troll, i.e., the info being asked for was not mentioned in the write-up. Other posts also raised the same issue (including the link parent was looking for).

    6. Re:Distributed Computing? by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
      Does anyone know if a distributed computing project exists for finding large prime numbers? That would be a pretty cool way to spend some CPU cylces.

      You obviously didn't read the article, or the lead in for this discussion, or any of the posts in this discussion. The largest primes found have *all* been meserenne primes found by GIMPS.

      And some moderator modded you up despite the fact that you clearly haven't been paying attention... (sigh...)

    7. Re:Distributed Computing? by drskrud · · Score: 1

      My apologies, but I didn't even notice the bottom half of the article. I saw the ad, and then jumped my attention to the comments, which at the time hadn't mentioned a thing about GIMPS. Of course, once all the replies came in I realized that there was more to the article than I originally saw... But then again, you're replying to a comment that was made about 3 days ago, amidst a sea of replies that are saying the same thing that you just said...

  7. CS Majors Unite by sageman · · Score: 1

    My algorithmics and discrete mathematics professors must be foaming at the lips in happiness-induced seizure-ific glory.

    Yes, I know happiness does not induce seizure.

    What a wonderful day in CS history. Well, here's to finding the 42nd! We can call it the Adams Prime. Wonder if it has some combination of 6's and 9's...hmm.

    --
    --- "To iterate is human, to recurse divine." -- Robert Heller
    1. Re:CS Majors Unite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This was suppose to be a funny binary joke, but its not one.

      Lets see here, one is often substituted for the boolean term true, so "not one" would mean your joke is false, right? Anyone else follow? Or am I entirely missing the joke here?

    2. Re:CS Majors Unite by sageman · · Score: 1

      Haha. Apparently not fond of puns? Probally should be "binary pun" instead of "funny binary joke" I imagine, but I copied it from someone else and didn't think about it, which maybe I should have, especially after all that exposure to boolean algebra and such. How's this: "This was suppose to be a binary pun, but its ~1"? Somehow, "This wasn't suppose to be a true binary joke, but its not one" just fails to induce a modicum of hilarity. Sorry.

      --
      --- "To iterate is human, to recurse divine." -- Robert Heller
    3. Re:CS Majors Unite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Nerd humor. Meh, I say. Meh!

  8. So... by elid · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...if I add 2 to this number, I just might get another prime and find the new largest prime. :-)

  9. harrumph by maxbang · · Score: 5, Funny

    Say all you will, but Optimus is still the ultimate prime.

    --
    I also reply below your current threshold.
    1. Re:harrumph by 0racle · · Score: 1

      Well lets hope this Optimus of yours can find the 10 million digit prime.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    2. Re:harrumph by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rodimous prime was way cooler. I mean come on he had saws on his hands and lasers build in, he didn't need an external laser cannon like Optiumus. I mean sure he didn't have roller to go out and do reconisance or a fortress on his back but who needs that? He also mopped the floor with Unicron. My vote is for Rodimous prime what a guy.

    3. Re:harrumph by Phosphor3k · · Score: 1

      I dunno. Though not a true prime, I liked Optimus Primal quite a bit. Rodimus Prime wasn't too shabby either.

      Of course, some would argue Optimal Optimus Prime was the best.

    4. Re:harrumph by j1m+5n0w · · Score: 1
      Have you heard The Ballad of Optimus Prime? (the link is just a clip, but I heard the whole thing a few weeks ago -- the funniest song I've heard on the radio in quite some time)

      -jim

    5. Re:harrumph by WWWWolf · · Score: 1

      Bah. Timber Wolf Prime all the way. Though I have to say that new-fangled prime thing wasn't that bad.

    6. Re:harrumph by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      ...but Optimus is still the ultimate prime.

      This one?

      --
      What?
    7. Re:harrumph by nocomment · · Score: 1

      I know, I felt betrayed by rodimus. :-(

      --
      /* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
      /* http://allyourbasearebelongto.us */
  10. My Hashtable by KidSock · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great. This should improve the distribution of elements in my hashtable implementation.

    1. Re:My Hashtable by cervo · · Score: 1

      Once you implement arbitrary length numbers and an arbitrary length number arithmetic. It will make the constant factor of O(1) bigger than some O(n) algorithms no doubt.

      I think Microsoft has use for you and your hash table in longhorn :)

    2. Re:My Hashtable by iNetRunner · · Score: 1

      Don't you elements get lonely in there? *PS You did also implement linked list in the elements?*

      --
      Store with salt
  11. Why? by bstuffer · · Score: 1

    What is the marginal utility of finding out yet another prime number? Arent we doing just fine with the current ones? Or is this a radical discovery disproving something?

    Prateek

    1. Re:Why? by Tatarize · · Score: 1

      It serves some uses with encryption ect... It disproves nothing, there are proofs for the infinate number of primes, so there's always another other prime out there...

      --

      It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    2. Re:Why? by mr_jim83 · · Score: 1

      I don't think there's really much utility at all. Mathematicians just like this sort of thing; some people are interested in really big numbers with interesting properties. But even if there isn't a use for the number, maybe the techniques used to find and verify it are interesting.

  12. The real question by panxerox · · Score: 1, Interesting

    is this number now copyrighted?

    --
    "It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
    1. Re:The real question by barcodez · · Score: 1

      INAL but you can't copyright a number.

      --

      ----
    2. Re:The real question by GregChant · · Score: 1

      No... but you can trademark it! To the USPTO!

    3. Re:The real question by damiam · · Score: 1

      Maybe not, but a number can be illegal under the DMCA.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
    4. Re:The real question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you are correct.

      There is an obvious one-one map from valid BMP files to (really big) integers. You can copyright an image defined by a BMP file, can't you?

      But of course it's not quite the same as copyrighting a number. Your copyright on the image will extend to other images if they are sufficiently similar, so in a sense it is broader than a number.

      Also, if someone has some other useful map from representations of a creative work (MP3, JPG, TIFF, WAV...) to integers, and their work happens to be represented by the same integer, then the copyright system clearly has to permit this sort of collision. So your copyright cannot really be described by a single integer.

    5. Re:The real question by Zone-MR · · Score: 1

      www.sharereactor.com was shut down recently for "copyright violations".

      What did they distribute? 16 byte hashes which could be used to validate copyrighted works.

    6. Re:The real question by cgenman · · Score: 1

      Your plan is perfect! Anyone else ad infinitum who attempts to use
      454848159789159489543459789400456489715015608 79456
      045089704504897089074045604891501210804898097001 05
      123048604876156048907456045601540890489079456015 04
      894089078970450156040789079801560487890790456048 97
      090890456049807980789078907897980789045604501231 56
      048907890159189459041597987089459105901980159454 84
      984090494089048979078978910012318048907406459789 07
      456048907090419504987009410704895640104816240816 20 48974801041560489489079056047097097980560123048079
      805604708970897089075610567048904415604890798709 40
      5648907 to sell a product or service will have a nasty surprise
      coming to them.

      That one is going to rake in the dough.

    7. Re:The real question by Ian+Peon · · Score: 1

      I was wondering if numbers could be copyrighted.

      Imagine, a piece of music represented in digital form carries a copyright. That can be represented as a very long number (millions of digits?)

      Is this long number, therefore, copyrighted?

    8. Re:The real question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't believe any of you are taking this seriously.

    9. Re:The real question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BTW, divisible by 59. Not that you said it wasn't, but we were talking about primes.

  13. As a corollary, by kevinatilusa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He's also found the largest known perfect number, 2^(24,036,583-1)*((2^24,036,583)-1)

  14. exam revision time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You will be required to remember this number for this semester's exam. I'd also advise you to bring an extra couple of pens and pencils.

    1. Re:exam revision time... by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 0

      If you promise me that you'd invigilate all through the time I am writing down this number, I am ready

  15. Not in this case... by kevinatilusa · · Score: 2, Insightful

    since 2^(odd number)+1 is always a multiple of 3

    1. Re:Not in this case... by RucasRiot · · Score: 1, Funny

      OWNED heh

      --
      Props to GNAA!
    2. Re:Not in this case... by Fjandr · · Score: 1

      Except this is 2^(odd number)-1, so if it's the lower of a twin prime, adding +2 would indeed make it another prime.

      Only if it's the higher twin prime would it be divisible by 3.

    3. Re:Not in this case... by RedWizzard · · Score: 1
      Except this is 2^(odd number)-1, so if it's the lower of a twin prime, adding +2 would indeed make it another prime.

      Only if it's the higher twin prime would it be divisible by 3.

      2^(odd number)-1 can't be the lower of a twin prime because 2^(odd number)+1 is always divisible by three. 2^(odd number)-1 could be the higher of a twin prime.
    4. Re:Not in this case... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And 2^24036583-3 is divisible by 5*19*47*431.

      Definitely not a twin prime either way!

    5. Re:Not in this case... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
      since 2^(odd number)+1 is always a multiple of 3

      Theorem For any positive odd integer n, 3 divides 2^n+1

      Proof We will use the Principal of Mathematical Induction.

      Basis When n=1, we have 2^n+1=2^1+1=3. Furthermore, when n=3, we have 2^n+1=2^3+1=9.

      Induction Now suppose n is a positive odd integer, and that 3 divides 2^n+1. We will now show that 3 divides 2^(n+2)+1.

      Since 3 divides 2^n+1, there exists an integer q such that 2^n+1=3*q

      2^(n+2)+1=2^(n+2)+4-3
      =2^2*2^n+4-3
      =4*(2^n+1)-3
      =4*3*q-3
      =3*(4*q-1)
      =3*r, r=4*q-1

      Where r is an integer by the closure properties of multiplication and subtraction.

      QED

    6. Re:Not in this case... by chgros · · Score: 5, Insightful

      More directly (without induction):
      if T = 2^(2p+1) + 1:
      T = 2^(2p+1) - 2 [mod 3]
      T = 2(2^2p - 1) [3]
      T = 2(4^p - 1) [3]
      T = 2(1^p - 1) [3]
      T = 0 [3]
      qed

    7. Re:Not in this case... by localhost00 · · Score: 1

      More directly (without induction):
      if T = 2^(2p+1) + 1:
      T = 2^(2p+1) - 2 [mod 3]
      T = 2(2^2p - 1) [3]
      T = 2(4^p - 1) [3]
      T = 2(1^p - 1) [3]
      T = 0 [3]
      qed

      Um, you may have to clarify why 4^p (mod 3) is congruent to 1^p (mod 3).

      --

      Calling atheism and agnosticism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.

    8. Re:Not in this case... by chgros · · Score: 1

      OK:
      3 is prime
      4 = 3 + 1

    9. Re:Not in this case... by localhost00 · · Score: 1

      I was referring to 4^p and 1^p, not just 4 and 1.

      --

      Calling atheism and agnosticism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.

    10. Re:Not in this case... by chgros · · Score: 1

      I guess I can just point you to any reference on arithmetic: Zn, set of integers modulo n, is a ring (a field if n is prime); the transformation from Z is a homomorphism, so these kinds of operations on equalities is perfectly valid.

    11. Re:Not in this case... by Fjandr · · Score: 1

      Quite correct, I wasn't paying close enough attention. :)

    12. Re:Not in this case... by mrgeometry · · Score: 1

      chgros's reply is right---you should really look at a book on abstract algebra, such as the books of Fraleigh, Gallian, or Dummitt & Foote. But for some reason I feel like chipping in (to hear my own voice, most likely), so here goes.

      4 = 1 (mod 3)

      so

      4*4 = 1*1 (mod 3)

      which is to say that 4^2 = 1^2 (mod 3)

      Similarly, 4^3 = 1^3 (mod 3), and 4^4 = 1^4 (mod 3), and so on. At this point you could write down an induction if you want (given 4^p = 1^p (mod 3), multiply the left hand side by 4 and the right hand side by 1; these are equal). Really it should just be direct.

      The idea is that, for cripe's sake, 4 = 1. So 4+73 = 1+73, and whatever other operations you want to do. For example, 4^p = 1^p. Mod 3.

      HTH

      zach
      (ps. Too bad there's no TeX posting option :-) )

    13. Re:Not in this case... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2^(n+2)+1=2^(n+2)+4-3
      =2^2*2^n+4-3
      =4*(2^n+1)-3
      =4*3*q-3
      =3*(4*q-1)
      =3*r, r=4*q-1

      =profit?

    14. Re:Not in this case... by localhost00 · · Score: 1
      I am just giving you a hard time, because not everyone might understand mod arithmetic.

      This is why I chose the Induction proof over mod proof.

      --

      Calling atheism and agnosticism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.

    15. Re:Not in this case... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know, 99% of the literate population groks 12-hour clocks.

      Even as a math graduate with a few papers, I can still feel my brain shifting into "induction" mode.

    16. Re:Not in this case... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We will use the Principal of Mathematical Induction.

      -1 credit just for the principle of the thing.

  16. I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are there infinitely many twin primes of the form (2^N)+1, (2^N)-1?

    Need an answer by Tuesday.

    1. Re:I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by WombatDeath · · Score: 1

      Yes.

    2. Re:I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by crossconnects · · Score: 1
      no.

      any number of the form (2^n)+1 where n is odd is divisible by 3. Mersenne numbers require n to be odd.

      --
      no big sig
    3. Re:I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Mersenne numbers require n to be odd."

      Except there is a Mersenne prime for n=2, of course. Other than that, it looks like you're absolutely correct.

      I guess that would mean there are only two sets of twin primes that include a Mersenne prime: (1, 3) and (3, 5).

      Thanks.

    4. Re:I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by Noren · · Score: 1
      No, Mersenne numbers require n to be prime, not necessarily odd. n=2 works, n=9 does not.

      Not all prime n work, but no non-prime n can work.

    5. Re:I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by crossconnects · · Score: 1

      You are technically correct, but you missed the point. The original question regarded an infinite number of prime twins of the form 2^n-1, 2^n+1. Since 2^n+1 for any odd n is divisible by 3, there can be only one pair of primes of that form. that pair shows up when n = 2, thus providing the prime pair 3,5.

      --
      no big sig
    6. Re:I've got a question about the Mersenne twins. by Noren · · Score: 1
      You arrived at the correct conclusion for the wrong reasons, and my post addressed those incorrect reasons.

      The only statement you've made on this thread about numbers of the form 2^n-1 was obviously false. Your conclusion here ignores all the 2^n+1 for even n even though some are prime (Fermat primes, e.g. 17, 257, 65537). In order for your "proof" to apply it must be demonstrated that the only even n for which 2^n-1 is prime is n=2. This requires the statement I made. Who's missing the point?

      Besides, if I really wanted to miss the point I'd point out that you're wrong again with another counterexample:

      Since 2^n+1 for any odd n is divisible by 3
      The number -1 is odd, and 2^(-1) + 1 = 3/2
  17. Hey, this is very important....... by Lexomatic · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who knows, one day you might find yourself struck in the tiger den with multiple doors all marked with Mersenne Primes, and a sign saying, "safe exit thru the door marked with the 41st Mersenne Prime". Yeah, then who is gonna bitch about not memorizing that sucker, huh?

    1. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Roman numerals, they haven't tried to teach us that in school!"

    2. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It won't be a problem because you will be given multiple choices like:
      • if you choose 2^2863823647-1, goto number 45
      • if you choose 2^1289778469-1, goto number 126
      and you will be able to cheat (like I've always done before)!
    3. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by shigelojoe · · Score: 1

      I would lose the rest of my faith in humanity if the Rocky movie numbering system could help in that situation:

      "That's it! Rocky [41st Mersenne Prime]: Rocky versus the Spammers resriee32x!"

    4. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by toddhunter · · Score: 1

      It could also be handy if you are stuck in a cube loaded with death traps.

    5. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by |<amikaze · · Score: 1

      I don't know if anyone else got that, but I did. :D You're not alone in the world of The Cube.

    6. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by plasm4 · · Score: 1

      as long as its not a hypercube...

    7. Re:Hey, this is very important....... by jokkebk · · Score: 1

      What's even easier is to count the digits and the one with little over 7 million is yours!

      Oh, wait..

      --
      http://codeandlife.com
  18. I knew it by jmoen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Size does matter :)

  19. Re:wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Only on Slashdot is the first post modded Redundant.

  20. What happen ? by PurifyYourMind · · Score: 2, Funny

    Somebody set up us the prime.

    1. Re:What happen ? by professor+seagull · · Score: 0

      bad.

    2. Re:What happen ? by 1000StonedMonkeys · · Score: 1

      Prime the US! Upset Somebody!

  21. That poster is a scam! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I heard a rumor that some wiseguy in charge of printing changed one of the digits first - you may think you're paying for a prime, but they're really stiffing you and shipping a composite number!

  22. History of Prime #s by NEOtaku17 · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopic s/Prime_numbers.html

    1. Re:History of Prime #s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  23. what I want to know... by lawngnome · · Score: 0, Troll

    The new prime was verified by Tony Reix in just 5...

    so why isnt this guy looking for primes if he has such a fast setup?

    1. Re:what I want to know... by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 1

      Good idea! I'll find the 42nd Mersenne Prime in no time with the processing power i got here.

      ummm... let's see... *shakes the 8-ball* it says I should verify that 2^26.523.804-1 is the 42nd Mersenne Prime.

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
    2. Re:what I want to know... by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 0

      *verified* is the key
      they didn't say that the other guys computed the number again

      The verification procedure, used here, might not be a feasible one for actually finding out the correct ones by checking every number

  24. Yeah sure. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm not gonna believe that until I verified it myself.

    so.. anyone got a clue on how long it will take on my good old Pentium Pro 200?

    1. Re:Yeah sure. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this actually isn't as outlandish as it may seem. They do all their benchmarking and stat taking compared to a pentium1 90mhz machine. So if you go to the stats page, it tells you how many cpu years you have been working on the project with the reference being a p90.
      k
      thx
      gg

    2. Re:Yeah sure. by leerpm · · Score: 1

      The longest bathroom break of your life.

    3. Re:Yeah sure. by MoFoQ · · Score: 1

      it'll be longer if there's floating point in the algorithm.

      And by the time it verifies it, there will be a new number to verify.

  25. hmmm by challahc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I guess these people trust the accuracy of these programs.

    Personally I think someone should work this out on paper. Any volunteers/nominations?

    --
    01100010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101
    1. Re:hmmm by jrockway · · Score: 0

      They use two separate software packages, running on different computers. If the different implementations agree, it's probably correct.

      --
      My other car is first.
    2. Re:hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what's sad is that the above was rated 'insightful'. hah.

    3. Re:hmmm by gauchopuro · · Score: 1

      Nice sig.

    4. Re:hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      A first post is modded redundant, and this is insightful. Wonderful moderation system.

      Now listen: if it took his Pentium 4 about 2 weeks to calculate this, how long do you suppose it would take for a human to do it on paper?

    5. Re:hmmm by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
      I guess these people trust the accuracy of these programs.

      Personally I think someone should work this out on paper. Any volunteers/nominations?

      GIMPS is a distributed processing system designed to look for very large prime numbers - Mersenne primes is all they look for. There are multiple reasons for that.

      Anyone can join and help. People run a client program on their computer which "checks out" a number, checks to see if it passes the prime-test, and checks it back in with the results. The program runs at a very low level, so it uses your CPU cycles that would otherwise go to waste. (NOOP instructions would otherwise be run.)

      When a new prime is found, it isn't instantly trusted. In theory, the program which tested it could be wrong. In theory, the user who ran that program could have kludged with things to give a false result. In theory, a hardware malfunction (especially on an overclocked machine) could cause an error that would report a false positive.

      So, when GIMPS thinks they have a found a new prime, they don't *assume* they have found a new prime. They run another test. I think they have a mainframe that handles that testing. It gives them a controled situation, and a different machine to do the testing on. They also use a different algorithm to test for primality, to make sure that the program isn't simply saying "Yes" when it should say "No."

      After that, once the number is announced, anyone that wants can check it for themselves - but they'll do it using a computer.

      Checking it by hand is nonsense - you wouldn't live that long, and you are *much* more likely to make mistakes than multiple computers doing the math would be. Math is one of the things computers are very good at.

      Keep in mind, there are over 7 million digits in this number. It's a BIG number. You aren't going to factor it by hand.

  26. What's next? by rune2 · · Score: 1

    "Hey baby, what's your prime?"

  27. Picture Frame by KhalidBoussouara · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I understand that producing such a poster will be expensive but this is ridiculous:

    Without frame: $77.00
    With frame: $247.00

    SCO's claim that their code has been stolen sounds more logical than this!

    1. Re:Picture Frame by challahc · · Score: 1

      A poster sized frame? Doesn't Wal-Mart sell those?

      --
      01100010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101
    2. Re:Picture Frame by Dr+Tall · · Score: 1

      It's probably just overpriced to con you into comparatively thinking that $77 is reasonable to pay for a poster.

    3. Re:Picture Frame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My explanation: The frame is made of some really primed wood.

  28. Here is the whole number! by fredrikj · · Score: 5, Funny

    In binary: 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 11111111111111111111111111111111111111...

    Your comment violated the "postercomment" compression filter. Try less whitespace and/or less repetition. Comment aborted.

    Sorry :/

    1. Re:Here is the whole number! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, who gives a ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ... ?

  29. fermat was here by werdnapk · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have discovered a truly marvelous demonstration of a 10 million digit prime which this margin is too narrow to contain.

    1. Re:fermat was here by sam_doshi · · Score: 2, Funny

      So where's Andrew Wiles when you need him, eh?

  30. Re:Who gives a shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Getting laid does wonders for the state-of-mind...

    That's the theory anyway.
    But once you enter slashdot.org in your address bar you are doomed.

  31. Mod this a troll if you will by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But seriously, why the hell is this news? It's just a prime number. Can this number be used for any significant way to benefit mankind? Damn, even putting your spare CPU cycles into SETI@Home would be more productive than this.

  32. Aliens and primes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Folding@home is a much more immediate need. IMO.

    Stupid humans, they found us all right, but it doesn't matter because they are all dead, they did find a few interesting primes by the way

  33. A lazy newbie question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is a prime number anyway, what's its importance?

    1. Re:A lazy newbie question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a positive integer divisible only by 1 and itself.

  34. I will verfiy on my 66mhz running windows 3.11 by Numeric · · Score: 4, Funny

    i'll let everyone know when i am done!

    --
    -- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
    1. Re:I will verfiy on my 66mhz running windows 3.11 by BCW2 · · Score: 1

      I'm not going to live that long, and I'm only 47 now!

      --
      Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
    2. Re:I will verfiy on my 66mhz running windows 3.11 by Explo · · Score: 1

      Far too much resources thrown at a simple task; I'd use my Vic-20 (about 1MHz). A tape recorder would serve as a nice additional storage for temporary data, necessary because I don't think even 28 kilobytes available with memory expansion module would cut it.

      --
      Everyone who makes generalizations should be shot.
  35. What kind of data structures are used? by swamp+boy · · Score: 1

    What kind of data structures are used to hold that many digits? Obviously, built-in native types can't handle numbers that big - so what do they use? Is it an array of "long long"? Are they stored in string format (each digit as a character)?

    1. Re:What kind of data structures are used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      A Fortran vector could handle it, I guess.

    2. Re:What kind of data structures are used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You could use the GMP library, but it's GNU code so you might want to be careful about licensing.

      For a real free bignum library, try LibTomMath. It was written by a guy named Tom.

    3. Re:What kind of data structures are used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ..... a vector with N (let's say 64) bits per coefficient, and 24,036,583/N coeffs.

  36. Call me Fermat by Alsee · · Score: 3, Funny

    I have disovered a most elegant prime exceeding 10 million digits, alas the slashdot comment limit is too small to post it.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  37. So an Itanium GHz is worth less that a P4 GHz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    15 days * 1 CPU * 2.4 GHz = 36 CPU-GHz days

    0.5 (5 days * 16 * 1.3) = 52 CPU-GHz days

    11 * 4 * 1.5 = 66 CPU-GHz days

    My first guess would be that the 16-way box probably used more than "half" its horsepower on this, but even if that's the correct Itanium figure, their GHz appear to be worth about 30 percent less than a P4 GHz. And a P4 GHz is worth a good deal less than either a P3 or Athlon GHz...

    ...so why are all these big clusters using inefficent, expensive Itaniums, again?

    1. Re:So an Itanium GHz is worth less that a P4 GHz? by alehmann · · Score: 3, Informative

      Among other things, Glucas is writen in C and Prime95 is mostly x86 assembly that's heavily optimized for SSE2 and the P4.

      Not to mention that you can't expect the threading to scale perfectly. I'm surprised that there are any gains at all because the LL algorithm is so sequential. I remember hearing that Glucas could have done it in half the time on that machine if it had been optimized for NUMA, though.

    2. Re:So an Itanium GHz is worth less that a P4 GHz? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...so why are all these big clusters using inefficent, expensive Itaniums, again?

      I think the answer is, they're not! They're using only the more recent Itanium 2 codename "fanwood" and "madison DP" CPUs. These CPUs are down around $1000 now, just like (e.g.) an Opteron 848 or 850. But they're more powerful, and can be used in much bigger systems. I found one interesting discussion about Itanium price/performance here:

      2cpu.com forums

      As for efficiency, just look at the top500 list: Itanium 2 machines are the most efficient on the list, except for vector computers such as the NEC SX-5/6 and Cray's vector machines.

    3. Re:So an Itanium GHz is worth less that a P4 GHz? by Markus+Landgren · · Score: 2, Informative
      And a P4 GHz is worth a good deal less than either a P3 or Athlon GHz...


      No, it's not. Not for finding Mersenne primes anyway. You see, the relative performance of different CPU types depends on the kind of work being done.

      The benchmark charts at mersenne.org show that a P4 1800 MHz beats the Athlon 64 3400+ running at 2200 MHz. Even my own old P4 1600 MHz comes in ahead of the AthlonXP 3200+ running at 2200 MHz.

      So, my guess is that there is some kind of work where the Itanium beats the P4 and the Athlon. Who knows, maybe this cluster was not bought to run MS Word or UT2004, or some other application where the Athlon beats the crap out of an Itanium or a P4?
    4. Re:So an Itanium GHz is worth less that a P4 GHz? by MrMr · · Score: 1

      Yep, Itanium MHz beat everything else (including x86, AMD, Sparc, MIPS and PPC) on the molecular mechanics code we're running.
      It's a close second to PPC on the QM code.
      (As an aside, for this code: PIV/Xeon MHz aren't worth the ink they're printed with on the die)

  38. Verification program by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 0

    Don't you worry
    A program for verifying,using ocr, whether the poster you get really has the correct prime would be up on sourceforge the day the poster's released

    1. Re:Verification program by mrgeometry · · Score: 1

      main() {
      int last_digit ;

      if( is_even(last_digit) ) {
      poster_is_wrong() ;
      }

      return 0 ;
      }

      /* please don't mock my style */

  39. Mod Parent Down!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He speaks against the companies that have Slashdot in their back pocket. With all the Microsoft advertising on /. lately it seems that someone has decided to sell out to the big corporations.

  40. Last digit is a 7 by product+byproduct · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually the last 9 digits are 733969407, as this simple C program will show you:

    #include <stdio.h>

    int main()
    {
    int i;
    int p = 1;
    int m = 1000000000;
    for (i = 0; i < 24036583; i++)
    p = p*2 % m;
    p = (p+m-1) % m; // minus 1
    printf("%d\n", p);
    }

    1. Re:Last digit is a 7 by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

      not all numbers ending in 7 are prime, and in fact, many primes do not end in 7, but a whole lot end in 1

      --



      I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    2. Re:Last digit is a 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do all philosophers have letter 'S' in their names?

    3. Re:Last digit is a 7 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Do all philosophers have letter 'S' in their names?

      Kant you tell?

  41. What if by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What if the message that your SETI's going to find out happens to contains this prime!?!?

    Isn't it possible that some civilisation is so advanced that their 'bc' would give back the 50th mersenne prime just like our bc would return 3*5

    Wouldn't it be cool to find out that the msg you've just now found on SETI isn't gibberish but a hi from another advanced civilisation

  42. Please! I have I higher prime. by Tatarize · · Score: 1

    God told me 2^19232891231089 - 1 is prime. Now where were those women for the worlds highest prime? Try to prove me wrong... see, you can't. Prime.

    --

    It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
    1. Re:Please! I have I higher prime. by You're+All+Wrong · · Score: 2, Funny

      2^19232891231089 - 1 isn't prime.
      3765761637264764023 divides it.

      IAAM.

      YAW

      --
      Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
    2. Re:Please! I have I higher prime. by Tatarize · · Score: 1

      Do I at least get wannabe credit for having 2^P - 1 where P is a prime number. Guess not.

      --

      It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
  43. Yeah, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    EVERYONE will think of that.. "oh I'll just make my encryption key the largest known prime"... it's like setting 12345 on your luggage

    1. Re:Yeah, but by Houdini91 · · Score: 1, Funny

      Damn... someone please remind me to change the combination on my luggage...

  44. Wow... by displaced80 · · Score: 3, Funny

    7 million digits?

    That primate must have big hands...

    --
    What's the frequency, Kenneth?
  45. Re:wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, I suppose it could be redundant if it repeated what the article mentioned. But, since moderators follow the /. tradition of not RTFA, I think that's not the case here.

  46. In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Still no cure for cancer, and people still dying because of oil.

  47. Primality is in P by po8 · · Score: 1

    Recall that primality testing is now in polytime. It's currently impractical, since the polynomial is order 12 or thereabouts. But expect the search for the largest known prime to get much more boring once someone figures out how to get this algorithm down to a reasonable running time.

    1. Re:Primality is in P by ezzzD55J · · Score: 3, Informative
      True, but that's for general, unstructured numbers, while mersenne numbers are structured so that they're much easier to test for primeness than other numbers of that size. IANANumberTheorist, but it's such a huge difference that I doubt the general polytime test will ever be faster than the special mersenne test...

      BTW wasn't the polynomial order 6 whenever a unproved-but-likely hypothesis was true?

    2. Re:Primality is in P by You're+All+Wrong · · Score: 4, Informative

      Primality tests for numbers of the form k*b^n+/-1 have always (since Proth's time) been poly time, in fact O(n^(2+eps)).

      http://primepages.org/

      'proving'

      YAW.

      --
      Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
    3. Re:Primality is in P by pjt33 · · Score: 1

      IIRC it's O(n^12) unless the GRH holds, in which case O(n^6).

    4. Re:Primality is in P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The assumption is the Hardy-Littlewood conjecture on density of Sophie Germain primes, not GRH.

  48. What is it? by ProudClod · · Score: 0

    With the FOSS community and Gimps!

    --
    Gamers Europe - Gaming News. Reviews.
    1. Re:What is it? by black+mariah · · Score: 0

      It's all Freudian.

      --
      'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
  49. I'm feeling funny! by 3770 · · Score: 1

    So, SETI at home never really appealed to me.

    But this makes me want to go out and buy cheap computers and have a "server farm" at home to try to find primes.

    I'm serious.

    One day I'll be able to understand myself (yeah right, and the day after that I'll understand women).

    --
    The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
  50. OMG again by vijaya_chandra · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Offtopic!?!?!
    Am I seeing things

    Who ever the hell moderated the parent needs some medication.
    This AC was replying to one who didn't RTFA, and gets modded down by another who definitely RTFA.

    (Karma be damned : I am no better than an AC now anyway)

    1. Re:OMG again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to assume that /. moderators are somehow fit to moderate. So let me be the first to say... you must be new here!

  51. Bullshit! by Robber+Baron · · Score: 1

    Bullshit! It's divisible by three!

    --

    You're using her as bait, Master!

    1. Re:Bullshit! by crossconnects · · Score: 1

      actually the number on below it is divisible by 3!

      --
      no big sig
  52. 6 years by GISGEOLOGYGEEK · · Score: 4, Informative

    Been running prime 95 for 6 years now.

    Started with a p120 laptop, at times had a dozen computers teamed up.

    In that time .. ive found no primes but the work ive done would have taken 307 years for a p90 computer to match... a p90 being the 'zero-point' computer when the project started.

    --
    George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
  53. fun with python! by Doppler00 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    f = file(r'c:\files\bigprime.txt', 'w')
    f.write(str(2**24036583-1))

    I'll let you know when/if it ever finishes...

    binary digits:
    >>> math.floor(math.log(2**24036583-1,2))
    24036583.0

    decimal digits:
    >>> math.floor(math.log(2**24036583-1,10))
    7235732.0

    1. Re:fun with python! by jfengel · · Score: 2, Funny

      binary digits:
      >>> math.floor(math.log(2**24036583-1,2))
      24036583.0


      I assume you realize that any number of the form 2^n -1 is going to take n bits to represent.

    2. Re:fun with python! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      math.floor(math.log(2**24036583-1,2))
      24036583.0
      Hey! Think binary... It's 2 to the power of P minus 1, so it's expected to have P binary digits.

      Take an 1 bit and left-shift it 24036583 times, you'll have one `one' followed by 24036583 `zeros', subtract one and you'll have 24036583 `ones'.
  54. What a good OS X client for this? by TibbonZero · · Score: 1

    What's a good OS X client for this? They even have it compiled for OS/2 on the main DL page, but no apple support :)

    --
    Tibbon
    tibbon.com
    1. Re:What a good OS X client for this? by koekie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Since the main routines of Prime95 are in intel assembly it can't be compiled for the Mac. For the mac you can use GLucas (which was also used in the 2 verification runs), you kan find it at http://glucas.sourceforge.net/

  55. You're not funny at all. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not even a bit.

    Give up now while you're not too far behind, because if you don't you're only going to prolong all of our pain.

  56. For a good prime...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    call (509) 963-9999

  57. man, algorthimics class was FUN.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... I mean, hot pounding bass disco music, even hotter babes wearing tight leotards, getting all sweaty and me, the only guy in the class.. sigh .... ....good times, good times...

  58. Oblig. by G-funk · · Score: 1

    Hmmm... I know! Rocky V, plus rocky II, equals Rocky VII, Adrian's revenge!

    --
    Send lawyers, guns, and money!
  59. Don't trust the poster by hugesmile · · Score: 1
    Slashdot headline: New Largest Prime Found: Over 7 Million Digits

    Perfectly Scientific Homepage (they sell the poster): We have a physical poster of all (over) 7.2 million decimal digits available.

    Poster Caption: The largest known (November 2003) explicit prime number 2^20996011-1, having more than 6.3 million decimal digits

    We really don't know how many digits it has... But it's lots! (Seems to me it would be =20996011/(LN(10)/LN(2)), which is 6.320429 Million Digits, not 7 Million!)

    1. Re:Don't trust the poster by Theobon · · Score: 1

      Look at the date
      That was the last number found (40th)
      The new one is 2^24036583-1 which has (24036583/(ln(10)/ln(2))) 7 235 732 digits.

    2. Re:Don't trust the poster by hugesmile · · Score: 1

      oops... thanks... don't I feel like a dope. At least my formula was correct (or close).

  60. So is someone going to post the number? by erroneus · · Score: 1

    I'd kinda like to see it...

    1. Re:So is someone going to post the number? by Adam+Wysokinski · · Score: 1
      --
      You should be working now.
  61. Intel by bizitch · · Score: 1

    And Intel didn't think 64bit computing was going anywhere ... ;)

    --
    ---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
  62. (2 ^ 24,036,583) - 1 th post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And it was to an article from 3 years ago!

  63. When it is found.. by Mr2cents · · Score: 2, Funny

    GIMPS is closing in on the $100,000 Electronic Frontier Foundation award for the first 10-million-digit prime.

    When it is found that computer will be wondering: 1 $100.000 hookerbot or 100.000 $1 hookerbots?

    --
    "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
    1. Re:When it is found.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or a $10,000 cigar wrapped using one of the original copies of the declaration of independence....Oh wait lets just steal that.

    2. Re:When it is found.. by WWWWolf · · Score: 1
      When it is found that computer will be wondering: 1 $100.000 hookerbot or 100.000 $1 hookerbots?

      100000 $1 hookerbots. After all, it's a distributed system.

      And EFF is working to get the hookerbots somehow to participating countries where the hookerbots are illegal.

  64. Verification by timeOday · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Both verifications used Guillermo Ballester Valor's Glucas program
    Wouldn't it be more prudent to do verification with various algorithms?
    1. Re:Verification by tmyklebu · · Score: 3, Informative

      Why? It's not as if doing the verification with different algorithms will lessed the probability of a mistake; a quick Google search shows that Glucas is a deterministic algorithm for testing primality of Mersenne numbers.

    2. Re:Verification by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
      Wouldn't it be more prudent to do verification with various algorithms?

      The orignal find was made with one algorithm, the verifications were done on different machines using a different algorithm.

  65. Server /.'ed by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 1
    Here it goes:
    Mersenne number primality test program version 21.4 Contacting PrimeNet Server. ERROR 2250: Server unavailable The FAQ at http://www.entropia.com/ips/faq.html may have more information. Will try contacting server again in 60 minutes.
    It seems that /. per se is helping to find the next one... ;-)

  66. oye. it is not the largest prime ever by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 1

    it is the NEXT LARGEST prime after the last one.

    you want a larger prime number than the new one? add to the current one a number consisting of a 1 with a billion zeros after it. that number is prime as well.

    --



    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    1. Re:oye. it is not the largest prime ever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      2^24036583-1 + 10^1000000000 is divisible by 13, therefore it is not prime.

      What kind of math background do you have?

  67. Want a simple proof? by product+byproduct · · Score: 5, Insightful

    2^(odd number)+1
    = (-1)^(odd number)+1 [mod 3]
    = -1 + 1 [mod 3]
    = 0 [mod 3]

  68. Slashdot Earns It's Name by POLAX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This story is perhaps the most pure example of "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."

    I love it! :- )

  69. if by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if someone knew something about prime numbers, something important and big. should they say something?

  70. Want to see the number? by tjackson · · Score: 2, Informative

    $ dc -e '2 24036583 ^ 1 -p' > bigprime

  71. Tiny Elvis by DoctorHibbert · · Score: 1

    Hey, man, look at that prime... THAT IS HUUGE.

    I'm just saying it's a big prime is all.

    --
    Arbitrary sig
  72. so why arent more people doing this? by WormholeFiend · · Score: 1

    is it because they dont want to have to give up on their computers for weeks at a time?

    1. Re:so why arent more people doing this? by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1
      Most people don't care about big primes (or small primes, for that matter.) It's a fairly geeky thing.

      You don't have to give up use of your computer. I've been running Prime95 in the background on my windows machines for 6-7 years now. It runs in the background, essentially automated. (Every so often, I make sure I have the current version - it doesn't auto-update, which surprises me.)

      I run old hardware, but it runs at a low level, essentially only using CPU time when the CPU has nothing else to do. So I don't notice it - it's just in the background.

      My stats are listed here. http://www.mersenne.org/top2.htm

      4313 Stephen Whitis 21.26 57 That means I'm their 4313'th "most productive" user. Considering the old hardware I run, and the fact that some of the top producers have lots of machines running it, I'm surprised I rank that high.

      The 21.26 is "Pentium-90 CPU years". The P-90 is their base (you can tell it's been going awhile) and it gives you an idea of how much time your system(s) have put into GIMPS.

      Anyway, my point is, once you've set it up, you don't have to hold it's hand, and it doesn't tie up your computer, it just uses CPU cycles that would otherwise NOOP. I like it that my computer is *always* doing something useful. But then, I'm a geek. :^)

  73. Another Poster Available - CHEAP! by Spatula+Sam · · Score: 1
    For the price of US $50, I am offering a full-size poster of all the digits of this number, written in base 2^20996011-1.

    Don't miss out on this incredible offer!

  74. text file? by Backstab · · Score: 1, Funny

    how large would a text file with 10 million characters be?

    --
    http://www.backstab.net
    1. Re:text file? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      1 character = 1 byte (in ASCII)
      10,000,000 bytes = 10 megabytes (or 9.54 binary megabytes)

  75. A slightly different challenge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    One thing I'd like to know is, what is the smallest unknown prime number? And more importantly, is there an award for finding it, thereby making it no longer unknown?

    1. Re:A slightly different challenge by Jim+Starx · · Score: 1

      If we what it was it wouldn't be unknown...

      --
      The darkness... controls the music. The music... controls the soul.
  76. just generated it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Thanks to the suggestion for...
    dragon $ dc -e '2 24036583 ^1 -p' > bigprime
    (took all of 10 minutes to generate on dual p4 2.4 RHEL box)

    It is...
    dragon $ cat bigprime | wc
    104866 104866 7445464 :-)

    dragon $ more bigprime
    2994104294041571720890489263404469382573 6772297541 8473547677348600097\
    6402211007410262658651099123 2085849334415641521263 5335213499669984946\
    4660024345642470272577169564 2662105261107741637995 6346589355834130669\
    1793645554900420589512627118 1099996307160208959114 6249605845552251245\
    1750406146467967427758141698 7797735189577892265233 9915229521619514779\
    5568313648450268950958240527 1220741611859625359434 4535443908358061475\
    9525813062523939655643872135 6880887010955400164710 2077512671720670861\
    1484703783801582301475946984 2856323336793806285343 7133547200496603279\ ... cut ...

    596042138740223572105833031297130060155848247331 65 5040635746326190400\
    4552714727628399333714490840 1115064186802797305085 0098493495965965353\
    0757538248731674269131691718 8885630947927139764390 6093267419703016252\
    0971632898561173793986132063 0694859231047623622621 9731381759341727521\
    3175667765215893946023476293 0906270990621862597287 8493025170887476672\
    7408309233371335704722292567 8801564700107406013708 5901832324495455374\
    3897283900425045692486553784 8448729599792041549432 0295787114054394490\
    4048445691846654931066223037 4225623854962949493299 0957491791132574973\
    6793183564954933262413429503 7485542595520771846437 8183256423142526858\
    6870398005560312691184129150 67436921882733969407

    Ends in 7. Yep. Looks prime to me. ;-)

    Just kinda working the list from the website... the difference between the primes always *seem* to be EVEN (after the first couple). Hmm...

  77. Informative? How about redundant instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Geez

  78. Why do we care? by WheelDweller · · Score: 1

    This is posted to the list like a new technical breakthrough that more than 1-2 people will be able to make use of this; like we should all go home and reset our prime number machine.

    Why is so much technology pointed at this?

    This reminds me of the long-running trickle of IRC bots, image viewers and 'light and fast browsers' that keep getting posted to Sourceforge and/or Freshmeat. We only need so many of these, ya know?

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  79. heheh by MoreDruid · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just received a notice from my administrator that I should change my password again... this'll teach him!

    --
    The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.
  80. What? by Raven42rac · · Score: 2, Funny

    So many comments, yet not one link to the Prime Number Shitting Bear?
    Not even the slightly more tame Prime Number Pooping Bear?

    --
    I hate sigs.
    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I only had modpoints I'd mod you up! That was freaking hilarious! :-)

  81. Persuit of uselessness != profit by evilandi · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    Eidechse: Binary math was once thought to be a useless curiousity.

    Worshipping the sun was also once thought to be useless- and still is. Your point?

    Primes have many uses. Most importantly, from the average Slashdot reader's point of view, they are the basis for most modern cryptography, such as the yellow padlocks on web browsers used to encrypt credit card details when buying online. Prime numbers are not a useless curiosity, they are highly valuable and very deliberately saught after.

    Extending your logic, if we fill our lives with activities that today we consider useless, then we will eventually benefit from that. That manages to fulfil both the Underpant Gnomes and Cargo Cult paradigms of badness in one go.

    People who spend their days doing useless stuff in the hope of turning up trumps are invariably disappointed. Christopher Columbus did not discover America for the Europeans as a random act; he was deliberately looking for a quick route to India. Alexander Fleming was not just messing about in the lab when he discovered penecillin; he was conducting very purposeful research into stapholycocci. These discoveries, toted by the lottery-culture media as accidents of pure chance, were in fact made only as part of rigourous effort and deliberation. Sure, they were side-effects, but there had to be a main effect that these people were searching for in order for there to be something for there to be a side-effect of. Equally, with your example of binary maths, these people were conducting very purposeful research into pure mathematics.

    Mind you, since it is a national holiday here in the UK today, I'm going to test your theory by spending all day watching old Tom & Jerry cartoons. Just in case.

    --
    Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
    1. Re:Persuit of uselessness != profit by eidechse · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So, just how long have you been waiting for an excuse (no matter how flimsy) to post that rant?

      I ask because your tirade, although vigorous and interesting, is entirely unrelated to my post.

      Since you seem to be articulate and well read I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming that you have some sort of agenda...

      What is it exactly?

  82. splitting-hairs... by r33per · · Score: 1
    Shouldn't it be "2 to the 24,036,583rd power minus 1"?

    For goodness sake, if you're going to jot down a number, at least do it right...

    Stu

  83. The largest prime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, I can't wait to go to a bar and try the new prime number.

  84. WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He also Caught this
    MASSIVE FISH!!!

  85. another message for M$ OSs by hutkey · · Score: 0

    imagine how the user will be annoyed by reading this message
    "enter any 7 million prime number to continue..."

  86. not "72%" by 1u3hr · · Score: 1
    the contributor wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation award for the first 10-million- digit prime. The new prime is 72% of the size needed,

    100 is a three digit number, it isn't 50% of 100,000 (a six digit number).

    The new prime has 7.2 million digits. That is 10e-2799998 % of "the size needed", 10e10000000.

  87. numbers need to switch on mind. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    read some good math thinkers about it.
    more important of being counted,
    numbers need to be thinked of.

    Lluis Vila

  88. Re:What? - reply to PNSB/PNPB link.... by iamcf13 · · Score: 1

    Count your blessings,

    I've seen the goatse version of this.... (>_<);;; :p

    Thankfully, I've forgotten the URL.

    I'm sure some poster here will remedy that oversight.... :P

  89. 'th'? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    2 to the 24,036,583th power?

    2 to the 24,036,583rd power!

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  90. 72 % by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    72% ???
    Are you crazy, lazy, or innumererate?

    And one is 50% of ten by your math too, right?

  91. I fail to understand... by crashnbur · · Score: 1

    What is the purpose behind the research for insanely large prime numbers? I can almost understand the fascination, but my primitive mind can accept no logical reasoning behind the pursuit. Any guidance is appreciated!

    1. Re:I fail to understand... by JuggleGeek · · Score: 1

      Large prime numbers are useful in encryption. However, for the most part, the primes this large are just math-geek things. Keep in mind that a lot of the math used today were "just math theories" several hundred years ago. And a lot of the math problems that people still work on today have been math problems for a *long* time. Factoring large numbers is the basis behind several encryption systems - but if a mathmetician were to somehow find an quick-n-easy way to factor large numbers, those systems would be useless. The fact that people have *tried* to find a way to factor large numbers for a long time, with no luck, indicates that you can probably trust those encryption methods.

  92. That's nothing... by Mac-O-War · · Score: 1

    I discovered a verry huge composite number in a matter of seconds.

    2^999999999999

  93. Not really.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know three chicks whose original equipment was male (XXY in one case, not sure about the others.) Two of them are both _extremely_ geeky, one a physicist and one a chip designer (The other one I know from squaredancing, and haven't talked geeky stuff with her, which makes her slightly less geeky than average for those squaredancers :-) The chip designer in particular is more of a math geek than 80% of the math geeks I know (who are almost all male.) So at least from a bayesian standpoint, the chicks I know who are really impressed with this sort of thing are _less_ likely to be real chicks than most chicks...

  94. sum of moderation - 30% funny 30% insightful 20%OT by PsiPsiStar · · Score: 1

    ... isn't moderation supposed to equal 100%?

    --

    ___
    It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
  95. God you ACs are ignorant! by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    The aliens are inside the number! Didn't think of looking there , did you?!!! Yeesh!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  96. You've. Wasted. Your. Life. by Thud457 · · Score: 1
    Procrastination pays!

    You could just go out and buy a new Athlon 64 3800 and have completed 307 years for a p90 this afternoon!

    Stuff like this makes me wonder if mathematics is going through one of those "data collection" phases that all sciences go through. Where everyone is doing all the "stamp collecting" that following generations will use in building new theories.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:You've. Wasted. Your. Life. by GISGEOLOGYGEEK · · Score: 1

      Hi meet my friend Thud, the idiot.

      ya sure, today i could blow a ton of money (IF I HAD SOME), on a top of the line computer, and do the same work in a much shorter time ...

      Open your Eyes you bloody fool! The computer I started with on Prime95 SEVEN years ago was a respectable machine at the time!

      Shall we shut off any kind of mass number crunching research right now because next year there will be a faster computer?

      How bout after that year has gone by ... oops i guess we should wait another year when an even faster computer is available. ... and keep putting it off FOREVER because the future will always be better.

      You don't understand the project in the least.

      Prime95 runs in the background, stepping out of the way whenever you need your CPU for a regular task. For 90% of the time you are 'using' your computer, you are actually wasting cpu cycles that if not for Prime or other similar programs would be consumed by the System Idle process.

      Why wouldn't you put that processor time to good use? Look at your task manager, notice that the System Idle process uses 99% of your cpu time most of the time!

      You can deride the project as mere 'stamp collecting' all you want, You're the blind one here. If it wasn't for all your so called 'stamp collectors' gathering data in EVERY field of science for the last couple hundred years, your life would be completely different today.

      Why not be part of the advancement, instead of just a leech?

      --
      George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"