dsouza@waltz (09/18/85)
Today's Austin American Statesman reports that computer scientists have "stumbled on" the largest prime number ever discovered, which is 2**216091 - 1. Which consists of 65050 digits and is the 30th Mersenne prime. Quote from the article: "While there is no known practical use for 65000-digit prime numbers, the method that finds them requires trillions of calculations, and is therefore a useful test of the reliability of large supercomputers... It took more than three hours to test the number on a machine that does 400 million calculations a second [a Cray X-MP supercomputer at Chevron Geosciences Co in Houston]/" cheers, dilip.
chongo@nsc.UUCP (Landon Noll) (09/29/85)
In article <30300001@waltz> dsouza@waltz writes: >Quote from the article: >"While there is no known practical use for 65000-digit prime numbers, >the method that finds them requires trillions of calculations, and is >therefore a useful test of the reliability of large supercomputers... Tell that to the NSA... :-} chongo <> /\oo/\
southard@unc.UUCP (Scott Southard) (09/29/85)
In article <30300001@waltz> dsouza@waltz writes: > >Today's Austin American Statesman reports that computer scientists have >"stumbled on" the largest prime number ever discovered, which is >2**216091 - 1. Which consists of 65050 digits and is the 30th Mersenne >prime. > I myself had discovered this prime long ago, using only my Apple ][ computer, a pencil, and 42 boxes of narrow-ruled paper. I guess if I want any recognition in this world I'd better start publishing my findings early.... Scott Southard <southard@unc>
southard@unc.UUCP (Scott Southard) (09/29/85)
In article <94@unc.unc.UUCP> southard@unc.UUCP (Scott Southard) writes: >In article <30300001@waltz> dsouza@waltz writes: >> >>Today's Austin American Statesman reports that computer scientists have >>"stumbled on" the largest prime number ever discovered, which is >>2**216091 - 1. Which consists of 65050 digits and is the 30th Mersenne >>prime. >> >I myself had discovered this prime long ago, using only my Apple ][ computer, >a pencil, and 42 boxes of narrow-ruled paper. I guess if I want any >recognition in this world I'd better start publishing my findings early.... > >Scott Southard ><southard@unc> Apparently some people took me seriously, which they wouldn't have if they could see my apple ][ in action. I was joking. In any case, I will try to restrict my somewhat limited wit to net.jokes from now on. Please accept my apologies. Scott Southard <southard@unc>