Topic: What I want in my sig (Read 2393 times)

Toasty0 · « **on:** December 14, 2003, 05:43:13 pm »

"Largest prime number found - after 8 years
DETROIT - More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer's personal computer.

'It was just a matter of time,' he said.

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The number has 6,320,430 digits and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than two million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.

Mr Shafer, 26, helped find the number as a volunteer on an eight-year-old project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

Tens of thousands of people volunteered the use of their PCs in a worldwide project, in effect creating a supercomputer capable of performing nine trillion calculations a second.

Participants could run the mathematical analysis programme on their computers in the background as they worked on other tasks.

Mr Shafer ran an ordinary Dell computer in his office for 19 days until Nov 17, when he glanced at the screen and saw 'New Mersenne prime found'.

A prime number is a positive number divisible only by itself and one: two, three, five, seven and so on.

Mersenne primes are a special category, expressed as two to the 'p' power minus one, where 'p' also is a prime number.

The find was independently verified by other participants in the project.

Mersenne primes are rare but are critical to the branch of mathematics called number theory.

That said, what is the practical significance of Mr Shafer's number?

'People are going to make posters of it to hang up on the wall,' said Mr Shafer. -- AP

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,225087,00.html

I think this would make a great new sig. Right, guys? Guys? Why is everyone snickering?

Sirgod · « **Reply #1 on:** December 14, 2003, 07:39:40 pm »

Hehe, I tried twice to download the text of the Mersenne Prime, and gave up on It. I'm sure It was slow because I'm on 56k .

Stephen

mathcubeguy · « **Reply #2 on:** December 14, 2003, 11:08:38 pm »

Well, it should take about 6 megabytes to store in bianary...

lol, try fitting that on a floppy disk

vsfedwards · « **Reply #3 on:** December 15, 2003, 03:51:54 am »

Hmmm, now to convert this to ASCII code

Toasty0 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 14, 2003, 05:43:13 pm »

"Largest prime number found - after 8 years
DETROIT - More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer's personal computer.

'It was just a matter of time,' he said.

Advertisement

The number has 6,320,430 digits and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than two million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.

Mr Shafer, 26, helped find the number as a volunteer on an eight-year-old project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

Tens of thousands of people volunteered the use of their PCs in a worldwide project, in effect creating a supercomputer capable of performing nine trillion calculations a second.

Participants could run the mathematical analysis programme on their computers in the background as they worked on other tasks.

Mr Shafer ran an ordinary Dell computer in his office for 19 days until Nov 17, when he glanced at the screen and saw 'New Mersenne prime found'.

A prime number is a positive number divisible only by itself and one: two, three, five, seven and so on.

Mersenne primes are a special category, expressed as two to the 'p' power minus one, where 'p' also is a prime number.

The find was independently verified by other participants in the project.

Mersenne primes are rare but are critical to the branch of mathematics called number theory.

That said, what is the practical significance of Mr Shafer's number?

'People are going to make posters of it to hang up on the wall,' said Mr Shafer. -- AP

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,225087,00.html

I think this would make a great new sig. Right, guys? Guys? Why is everyone snickering?

Sirgod · « **Reply #5 on:** December 14, 2003, 07:39:40 pm »

Hehe, I tried twice to download the text of the Mersenne Prime, and gave up on It. I'm sure It was slow because I'm on 56k .

Stephen

mathcubeguy · « **Reply #6 on:** December 14, 2003, 11:08:38 pm »

Well, it should take about 6 megabytes to store in bianary...

lol, try fitting that on a floppy disk

vsfedwards · « **Reply #7 on:** December 15, 2003, 03:51:54 am »

Hmmm, now to convert this to ASCII code

Toasty0 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 14, 2003, 05:43:13 pm »

"Largest prime number found - after 8 years
DETROIT - More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer's personal computer.

'It was just a matter of time,' he said.

Advertisement

The number has 6,320,430 digits and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than two million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.

Mr Shafer, 26, helped find the number as a volunteer on an eight-year-old project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

Tens of thousands of people volunteered the use of their PCs in a worldwide project, in effect creating a supercomputer capable of performing nine trillion calculations a second.

Participants could run the mathematical analysis programme on their computers in the background as they worked on other tasks.

Mr Shafer ran an ordinary Dell computer in his office for 19 days until Nov 17, when he glanced at the screen and saw 'New Mersenne prime found'.

A prime number is a positive number divisible only by itself and one: two, three, five, seven and so on.

Mersenne primes are a special category, expressed as two to the 'p' power minus one, where 'p' also is a prime number.

The find was independently verified by other participants in the project.

Mersenne primes are rare but are critical to the branch of mathematics called number theory.

That said, what is the practical significance of Mr Shafer's number?

'People are going to make posters of it to hang up on the wall,' said Mr Shafer. -- AP

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,225087,00.html

I think this would make a great new sig. Right, guys? Guys? Why is everyone snickering?

Sirgod · « **Reply #9 on:** December 14, 2003, 07:39:40 pm »

Hehe, I tried twice to download the text of the Mersenne Prime, and gave up on It. I'm sure It was slow because I'm on 56k .

Stephen

mathcubeguy · « **Reply #10 on:** December 14, 2003, 11:08:38 pm »

Well, it should take about 6 megabytes to store in bianary...

lol, try fitting that on a floppy disk

vsfedwards · « **Reply #11 on:** December 15, 2003, 03:51:54 am »

Hmmm, now to convert this to ASCII code

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