28 replies to this topic

[ExpandMyMind]

I think that this sort of discovery could be made to look insignificant once quantum computers are operational and fully functional.

[Lava_Lady]

Nasty Gash, on 06 February 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

Is it the largest prime number or is it the largest prime number yet found?  There is a very significant difference which apparently the author of the article doesn't understand or isn't careful enough to be bothered with.  Shoddy reporting at its finest.

Well, seems kind of obvious that it's the largest found as of yet since numbers are endless.  If someone cares to search for the next prime number then that one, once found, will be the largest prime number discovered.

[Nasty Gash]

Lava_Lady, on 06 February 2013 - 06:02 PM, said:

Well, seems kind of obvious that it's the largest found as of yet since numbers are endless.  If someone cares to search for the next prime number then that one, once found, will be the largest prime number discovered.

My point is that the writing is sloppy and the product of one who is careless and lazy.  The headline states that the largest prime number has been found.  This is factually incorrect since there are an infinite number of primes ...

http://primes.utm.ed...te/euclids.html

If the author had taken 30 seconds to do some research, the error could have been avoided by using something like "yet discovered" and then could have explained the difficulty in finding these large primes, how awesome the discoveries are, the significance, etc.

It is the imprecision and carelessness that most irk me

And "since numbers are endless" is not proof that there are an infinite number of primes.

[pallidin]

I tend to agree with some of the comments here, as opposed to the article.

So, I also am under the impression that super-large prime numbers are somehow important to advanced cryptography(from casual reading on the subject)
Never was too good at higher math, so I could be wrong.

Edited by pallidin, 07 February 2013 - 12:52 AM.

[TheLastLazyGun]

This prime is not an ordinary prime, either.  It is a Mersenne prime.

And, as everybody knows, a Mersenne prime can be written in the form 2^p−1, meaning that it's a power of two, minus one. That's the binary number consisting of 1 followed by p zeros, with one subtracted.

That, in turn, means it's the binary number that consists of the bit 1 repeated p times.

Mersennes are denoted by M(p), where p is the power of 2 they're one less than, or just as Mn, where n indicates the prime's position in the pecking order.

The lowest Mersenne prime is 3.  All Mersennes are odd number.

The new prime discovered recently, 2^57,885,161 − 1, which is also the largest known prime, is only the 48th Mersenne prime so far discovered, giving it the name M48.  It has 17,425,170 digits.

Since 1997, all newly-found Mersenne primes have been discovered by the “Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search” (GIMPS), a distributed computing project on the Internet.

As of November 2012, GIMPS has a sustained throughput of approximately 95 teraflops, theoretically earning the GIMPS virtual computer a place among the TOP500 most powerful known computer systems in the world.

But could this new prime really be M48?  In other words, could there be another Mersenne prime lurking between this one and M47, which is a mere 2^43112609−1?

In fact, according to GIMPS, only the first 41 Mersennes truly qualify to be called M1..M41. From M42 to M48, we're still unsure.

Edited by TheLastLazyGun, 07 February 2013 - 03:21 PM.

[Mnemonix]

The largest prime number found?! This is the greatest news I've heard in a long time!

[J. K.]

I think it's rather obvious.  They are researching these numbers in order to be able to count the U.S.A.'s national debt.

[Frank Merton]

Nasty Gash, on 06 February 2013 - 04:03 PM, said:

Is it the largest prime number or is it the largest prime number yet found?  There is a very significant difference which apparently the author of the article doesn't understand or isn't careful enough to be bothered with.  Shoddy reporting at its finest.

I suspect you already know this, but the way you worded your post has me wondering.  We have known since ancient times that there is no largest prime.

http://primes.utm.ed...te/euclids.html

[Lava_Lady]

Nasty Gash, on 07 February 2013 - 12:18 AM, said:

My point is that the writing is sloppy and the product of one who is careless and lazy.  The headline states that the largest prime number has been found.  This is factually incorrect since there are an infinite number of primes ...

http://primes.utm.ed...te/euclids.html

If the author had taken 30 seconds to do some research, the error could have been avoided by using something like "yet discovered" and then could have explained the difficulty in finding these large primes, how awesome the discoveries are, the significance, etc.

It is the imprecision and carelessness that most irk me

And "since numbers are endless" is not proof that there are an infinite number of primes.

hmm... Ok, well, thank you for clarifying your post.

since numbers are endless, there is no doubt more primes exist.  It's inevitable.

Edited by Lava_Lady, 07 February 2013 - 04:11 PM.

[magzire]

Forgive my noobness but whats the big deal of a large prime number?

[AsteroidX]

I believe it was the economics dept figuring what our future debt clock is going to need to be calibrated for.

[H132]

Nasty Gash, on 07 February 2013 - 12:18 AM, said:

My point is that the writing is sloppy and the product of one who is careless and lazy.  The headline states that the largest prime number has been found.  This is factually incorrect since there are an infinite number of primes ...

http://primes.utm.ed...te/euclids.html

If the author had taken 30 seconds to do some research, the error could have been avoided by using something like "yet discovered" and then could have explained the difficulty in finding these large primes, how awesome the discoveries are, the significance, etc.

It is the imprecision and carelessness that most irk me

And "since numbers are endless" is not proof that there are an infinite number of primes.

Wow... calm down Sheldon Cooper!

[Iron_Lotus]

Edited by Iron_Lotus, 10 February 2013 - 06:56 AM.

[shrooma]

I know a prime number that's 17,425,171 digits long!
i'd type it out so you could check the veracity, but well, you know, my dinner break is only half an hour long.....