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I first wondered they wouldn't just multiply all the prime numbers up to this new prime and then subtract one from it to get an even bigger prime number. But t
by undershirt 14y ago
I first wondered they wouldn't just multiply all the prime numbers up to this new prime and then subtract one from it to get an even bigger prime number.
But then I realized that they're not searching for them in sequence. I guess it's a very sparse table of primes once you get up there in the magnitudes.
- robterrell 14y agoOr, you could test that theory with some smaller primes and realize it wouldn't work.
- undershirt 14y agooops.
- cantos 14y agoIt will not necessarily be a larger prime. But it will always be divisible by a larger prime. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclids_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclids_theorem (Though not necessarily the next largest prime). The problem with this approach is that the product of the first n primes grows exponentially as the number of primes increases.