William Atkins
Saturday, 20 September 2008 20:30
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 3
Found by GIMPS software, the largest prime number is now:
243,112,609-1, where n = 43,112,609.
According to reports on this new "largest" prime number, if someone would print out the new prime number in 12-point type, it would take a piece of paper that was 30 miles (50 kilometers) long.
A sample of the number is found at the website “
243112609-1 is prime ” of American cryptologist
Landon Curt Noll.
Noll, one of the judges of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) prize for the prime number stated,
“The award is an incentive to stretch the computational ability of the Internet,” [Science News (subscription required): “
The largest prime number found”]
Computing resource manager
Edson Smith, of the Department of Mathematics’ Program in Computing (PIC), at the University of California, Los Angeles, directed the 75 computers within his computer laboratory that found the largest prime number.
Smith downloaded the GIMPS software and searched for the prime number when his computers were not busy with other university projects
GIMPS and Smith are eligible to a big prize for the discovery. Please read page three to find out how much money they will receive.
