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Just imagine if we didn't have computers how many fewer primes would have been found. Even with computers I started wondering how they even go about testing th
by hfsktr 14y ago
Just imagine if we didn't have computers how many fewer primes would have been found.
Even with computers I started wondering how they even go about testing these. I know there are multiple algorithms etc for verification. I meant in the sense of how to keep everything in memory and doing computations on it (I assume that numbers these large aren't trivial to work with).
The history of mersenne primes was a an interesting read though.
http://primes.utm.edu/mersenne/index.html http://primes.utm.edu/mersenne/index.html
- scythe 14y agoThe number's representation in binary can fit in RAM comfortably -- it's "only" 3 million bits or so. From there, the goal is to perform the Lucas-Lehmer test in as few operations as possible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas-Lehmer_test_for_Mersenne_numbers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas-Lehmer_test_for_Mersenne_...