Basically, it's a program that runs in the background on you computer. While you work away, it works at factoring really big numbers to see if they are prime. I mean REALLY big numbers. The number I'm working on right now is more than 10,000,000 digits long, that's ten MILLION. My computer has been running this number since Sunday, and I have another 25 days to go.
there website is here, give it a browse. Oh, did I mention that if your computer finds the first prime number with more than 10,000,000 digits you get about $50,000.00 US. Of course, it takes about a month on my 3.4 Ghz P4 w/HT and a gig of RAM to run one 10,000,000 digit number, so don't expect to find one right off the bat. Also, your odds of finding one are about 1:350,000. (With the steps passed on my number the odds are up to 1:200000.)
Yours in Christ,
Thursday
2 comments:
FYI: Mersenne was a Catholic priest BESIDES being a mathematician.
oooh $50,000.00 US ....it's almost tempting...!
Post a Comment