

Huge new prime number discovered  - reazalun
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7640183.stm

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dc2k08
forgive me if i sound naive, but i would have though it was a relatively
simple task to design program to decipher which numbers were prime numbers ad
infinitum. if it was april 1st, i would have thought this was a jest. is this
really that praise-worthy and notable?

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reazalun
From the article: "The team from the University of California at Los Angeles
(UCLA) found the new number by linking 75 computers and harnessing their
unused power. This enabled them to perform the enormous number of calculations
needed to find and verify a new prime. "

It's probably just a matter of processing power needed to find that number(s).

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anamax
> It's probably just a matter of processing power needed to find that
> number(s).

It's just a matter of strength and technique to run a world record 100
meter....

It's not just processing power, although it was a large amount of processing
power, it was knowing how to use it.

