1, 3, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97 .....
Remember those? Prime numbers, numbers that are indivisible except by themselves and one that cannot be factored down. The higher up the numerical scale, the less frequently prime numbers occur. That's all Math 101, and yes, 101 is a prime number too!
Thanks to Windows XP and a team of UCLA scientists they have now discovered a 13 million digit prime number!
Can you imagine how many sheets of paper it would take or how long it would take just to write down 13 million figures? If it takes one second per digit, that would be around 150 days around the clock!
If every digit were displayed at standard resolution, how many industry standard 17" computer displays would be needed to show all the figures?
Science is all about discovering new things, so let's celebrate this team at UCLA for their discovery. Now, who can explain how this discovery benefits the human condition except perhaps Microsoft can brag how air-tight its ability to calculate is. Remember the hoopla over the computation problems with the first generation Intel Pentium processors?
RMF is proud to have enabled his readers to be just a wee bit smarter on this rainy late September afternoon in Chesapeake Bay country. Given your humble writer was born in '53 and graduated from high school in '71, does that make him a PTP (Prime Time Player)? That might be stretching it!! Ah to be old enough to remember the days of the adding machine before the pocket calculator and the geeks still used slide rules in advanced math and science back then. Why do you think your writer here became a Liberal Arts student? Majoring in English and Philosophy and minoring in History worked out just fine for this fellow!!!
So when does one know, "I'm past my prime" anyway?
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