A wonderful day for Mathematics

The 48^th Mersenne Prime has just been found.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2274505/Biggest-prime-number-At-17-MILLION-digits-year-write-hand.html#axzz2KIub8WI0

Still doesn't beat by warp drive unit.

Still doesn't beat by warp drive unit.

You've lost me now. What does that mean?

You've lost me now. What does that mean?

The dragons said I'm not allowed to tell you.

The dragons said I'm not allowed to tell you.

Who's afraid of dragons? Their bark is far worse than their bite.

Who's afraid of dragons? Their bark is far worse than their bite.

You must not deal with dragons and their warp technology.

The 48^th Mersenne Prime has just been found.

I heard about this yesterday. That's cool from a theoretical standpoint. But the part of my engineer personality that likes practical things is wondering what it is we actually do with a 17 million digit number.

For example (and I don't know if this is actually true), I once read that knowing π to nine decimal places allows you to calculate the circumference of the observable universe to the precision of the width of a hydrogen atom. It's hard to imagine needing much more precision than that.

For example (and I don't know if this is actually true), I once read that knowing π to nine decimal places allows you to calculate the circumference of the observable universe to the precision of the width of a hydrogen atom. It's hard to imagine needing much more precision than that.

It's not true. If pi is truncated to 9 decimal places then the magnitude of the error is approximately 5×10^-10.
Now imagine a circle of radius 1km = 10⁶mm. Using the approximate value of pi the error in the calculation of the area will be of the magnitude

I heard about this yesterday. That's cool from a theoretical standpoint. But the part of my engineer personality that likes practical things is wondering what it is we actually do with a 17 million digit number.

I was listening to the tail end of an interview with the guy who was in charge of the project and he was asked the same question. He agreed that the number itself is of no use at the moment but what is useful is the method by which the number was found ie spreading a huge computational problem over lots of small computers.

I was listening to the tail end of an interview with the guy who was in charge of the project and he was asked the same question. He agreed that the number itself is of no use at the moment but what is useful is the method by which the number was found ie spreading a huge computational problem over lots of small computers.

I had heard something about that too, and that is genuinely cool. It sounds like a similar concept to what SETI is doing. Distributed computing could do some really useful things, I bet. Who needs a supercomputer when you have thousands of people willing to donate their laptop for a few hours?

Still doesn't beat by warp drive unit.

I wouldn't boast if my unit worked at warp speeds.

Quote from: Rushy on February 08, 2013, 05:25:28 AM

Still doesn't beat by warp drive unit.

I wouldn't boast if my unit worked at warp speeds.

Something being fast doesn't imply it reaches its destination quickly.

I would argue no day is a non-monumental day for mathematics.  Clearly, the first such day would be monumental for its notable non-monumental nature.  And the next as well!

Quote from: mathsman on February 08, 2013, 06:11:21 AM

Who's afraid of dragons? Their bark is far worse than their bite.

You must not deal with dragons and their warp technology.

My guess is that he is in contact with David Icke's alien reptiloids. Could be wrong though. Well he should take care!