Thirty-mile long prime number found: Biggest ever

William Atkins
Saturday, 20 September 2008 19:30

Science - Biology

Members of the GIMPS project are now eligible to be awarded the $100,000 prize from EFF for finding a prime number over 10 million digits in length.

According to Scientific American, “Under a prize-sharing agreement implemented by GIMPS, Smith or his institution would receive half the prize, with $25,000 going to charity, $5,000 going to GIMPS to cover expenses, and the balance going to past GIMPS volunteers who discovered lesser primes.” [Scientific American: “Big and bigger: New prime numbers claim top spots”]

The Scientific American article quotes Smith: “We thought it would be a good thing to use to get undergraduates interested in computational mathematics."

Smith adds, "It’s been sort of off my radar for quite some time, because frankly it’s such well-written software that it doesn’t need any maintenance. And in my business, you put something in, and if it doesn’t require any maintenance you just let it go.”