12M Digit Prime Number Sets Record, Nets $100,000 232
coondoggie writes "A 12-million-digit prime number, the largest such number ever discovered, has landed a voluntary math research group a $100,000 prize from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The number, known as a Mersenne prime, is the 45th known Mersenne prime, written shorthand as 2 to the power of 43,112,609, minus 1 . A Mersenne number is a positive integer that is one less than a power of two, the group stated. The computing project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) made the discovery on a computer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Mathematics Department."
Sounds cool, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Call me a n00b, but I'm unsure there are any ways to use this newfound information about prime numbers.
Next time good ol' (2^43,112,609 - 1) comes up in conversation, I'll make sure to impress everyone with my new knowledge, but other than that, I feel no smarter for having read this article.
Re:woo (Score:3, Insightful)
Glad to hear they're putting all those donations to use. There's no telling the impact on civil liberties that having access to a really large prime number will have...
Er, yeah no shit...I'm all for supporting the EFF(seriously, I am), but when I have to whip out my "what-the-fuck-good-is-THAT-for?!?" card, I tend to re-think my tax write-offs, especially to the tune of $100K...
Re:woo (Score:4, Insightful)
They just got advertising in every math/scientific magazine on the planet.
Mostly read my professionals that make decent money.
Sounds like a well spent 100K to me.
Whoever added the "founditontheground" tag... (Score:3, Insightful)
Mersenne number (Score:1, Insightful)
A Mersenne number is a positive integer that is one less than a power of two, the group stated.
Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, their opinion, man.
Re:WHO CARES??? (Score:1, Insightful)