04 Jan 06
Originally posted by Darth SpongeSecurity & Encryption.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-01-03-largest-prime-number_x.htm
could someone more math-savy than myself (this includes my toaster oven) explain briefly any practical use of a big prime number?
The highest levels of security know to man relies on massive prime numbers. Because they are unpredictable.
05 Jan 06
2 edits
Originally posted by celticcountryActually the prime numbers used in encryption are generated by the computer when making a key. They don't use lists of prime numbers (or crackers could just use that list to break it) and anyway the numbers used are much (much) smaller than the largest known.
Security & Encryption.
The highest levels of security know to man relies on massive prime numbers. Because they are unpredictable.
The largest known prime number is useless for intents and purposes however there is a $100,000 prize for the first prime number of the form 2^n - 1 with 10 million digits or more (The newly found one has 9.1 million digits).
05 Jan 06
I liked the way the article backtracked progressively. The headline reads "Mo. researchers find largest prime number", followed by "Researchers at a Missouri university have identified the largest known prime number" and finally "The discovery is affiliated with the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, a global contest using volunteers who run software that searches for the largest Mersenne prime."
Sell those papers, you lousy hacks!
05 Jan 06
Originally posted by XanthosNZThen perhaps you should explain what a prime number is. For the benefit of those who have no idea.
But it being the 43rd has no bearing on anything. Also to anyone who hasn't heard of them the name Mersenne Prime means nothing whereas the definition (prime number of the form 2^n - 1) means everything.