kallend 2,162 #1 March 2, 2005 German discovers longest prime number Luke Harding in Berlin Wednesday March 2, 2005 The Guardian A German eye specialist with a keen amateur interest in mathematics has discovered the world's largest prime number after a 50-day search using his personal computer. Dr Martin Nowak, who has his own practice in the south German town of Michelfeld, stumbled upon the number last week, breaking the previous record for a prime number by half a million digits. Prime numbers are divisible only by themselves and 1. While the first prime numbers 2, 3, 5, and 7, are easy to identify, Dr Nowak's monster prime number is more than 7.8m digits long and is written as 2 to the 25,964,951st power minus 1. The number belongs to a special class of rare prime numbers known as Mersenne primes, named after a 17th century French monk who first studied them 350 years ago. So far only 42 have been found. Yesterday Dr Nowak was reluctant to talk about his discovery, made using a special programme on his 2.4GHz Pentium 4 computer. "He's busy. He has a full afternoon seeing patients. He's doesn't want to comment," a spokeswoman at Dr Nowak's clinic said. The eye surgeon is one of thousands of volunteers using software provided by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (Gimps), a project to discover the holy grail of prime number research - a 10m-digit prime number. It took experts five days to work out that Dr Nowak's new number was indeed bigger than the previous biggest prime, discovered last May by an American. His number has 7,816,230 digits.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #2 March 2, 2005 Wow! That's really cool. I used to use that program to check my RAM memory. It's really good to use to clock your memory and the speed of your CPU. Never thought I could actually find a Prime Number using it. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rebecca 0 #3 March 2, 2005 Soooooo, what's the point of finding great big prime numbers? you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #4 March 2, 2005 QuoteSoooooo, what's the point of finding great big prime numbers? Once found they give you a large E-PENIS and some money. Well at least you really do get some money... seriously there is a reward if it's confirmed to be an actual prime number. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rebecca 0 #5 March 2, 2005 'K, so I know why I would want to find a big-ass prime (the money, not the e-penis), but why is it worth anything in the first place? Is there a practical application? Purely academic? you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' -- well do you, punk? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slappie 9 #6 March 2, 2005 Quote'K, so I know why I would want to find a big-ass prime (the money, not the e-penis), but why is it worth anything in the first place? Is there a practical application? Purely academic? Since I'm not a mathmatical genuis, I would assume it's purely for academia praise. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nacmacfeegle 0 #7 March 2, 2005 They are very useful for cyphers, encryption, etc. I believe that is their most commercial aspect.-------------------- He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. Thomas Jefferson Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
