Comments on: Another prime number down, infinity to go

By: showme

showme — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:14:00 +0000

Not The Life of Pi?

By: Marc Montoya

Marc Montoya — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 04:54:00 +0000

i got it right here, but i cant put it here due to space and time constraints. nor can i tell you ’cause of space and time constraints. sigh

By: Andrew Pautz

Andrew Pautz — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:40:00 +0000

Disclaimer: You’ll choke your browser.

You can see the number fully written out (base-10) here:http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/digit/m57885161/huge-prime-c.html

By: BillStewart2012

BillStewart2012 — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:17:00 +0000

Mersenne primes aren’t particularly useful for cryptography. There aren’t very many of them, and they’ve got special forms which make them easy to find but might interfere with cryptographic use. On the other hand, they’re a good problem to use for developing tools for large distributed computations, and potentially more practical than looking for Space Aliens.

By: cjporkchop

cjporkchop — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:14:00 +0000

From https://www.eff.org/awards/coop –
“Prize money comes from a special donation provided by an individual EFF supporter, earmarked specifically for this project. Prize money does NOT come from EFF membership dues, corporate or foundation grants, or other general EFF funds.”

By: awjt

awjt — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:56:00 +0000

Hey, rules are rules, and I’m hereby making them! :-)

By: bzishi

bzishi — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:09:00 +0000

Why? I assure you, there are enough prime numbers for everyone to discover!

By: jimkirk

jimkirk — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 00:04:00 +0000

Whenever someone tells me to “pick a number, any number”, I just start rattling off digit until they get bored/aggravated and usually ask me to stop.

By: bucaneer

bucaneer — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:59:00 +0000

It’s a matter of collateral benefit, I think. Calculating a 100 million digit prime would require a breakthrough in computing power, algorithm design or mathematical theory, all of which would most probably find some good wider use. See also: indirect benefits of space race.

By: Asmodeus

Asmodeus — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:38:00 +0000

Prime numbers are used in cryptography, so the EFF would use that to help with internet privacy.

By: Cameron Postelwait

Cameron Postelwait — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:21:00 +0000

spoiler alert: this is the plot to Speed 3!

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:18:00 +0000

I love the EFF. But what reason could they possibly have for offering money for a new prime number? Shouldn’t they be using that dough to fight the good copyfight?

By: Mark Dow

Mark Dow — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 23:14:00 +0000

With a measly 18 or 19 digits.

From http://primes.utm.edu/notes/faq/LongestList.html

“Perhaps the longest lists ever calculated (but not all stored) are those corresponding to the maximal prime gap (and twin prime constant) projects. See Nicely’s lists. At the time I last updated this page, these projects had found (but not stored) all the prime up to 10^18, but not yet to 10^19.”

By: awjt

awjt — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:51:00 +0000

New rule: it should be against the law, and you spend time thinking about it in the Hague, to calculate any large prime without knowing all the primes that come before it. You cannot skip ahead.