

The Largest Known Prime by Year: A Brief History - vgnet
http://primes.utm.edu/notes/by_year.html

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padobson
I don't want to rain on anyone's math geek parade, but is there a practical
use for discovering primes?

Is there any use beyond crunching giant numbers for theoretical physics and
knowing a certain number can't be divided - or is this just the math geek
equivalent of knowing the Baltimore Orioles had four 20-game winners in 1971?

~~~
AlexFromBelgium
"Public key crypto algorithms utilize prime numbers extensively; indeed, prime
numbers are an essential part of the major public key systems"
[http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/vpns/prime-
numb...](http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/vpns/prime-numbers-
public-key-cryptography_969)

~~~
andrewcooke
but they cannot use "biggest" primes because, typically, security relies on
the prime being unknown.

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eru
Yes. But they employ techniques that were at the forefront of the search for
big prime numbers in earlier times.

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Estragon

      > ...this record, which stood for 75 years, MAY stand
      > forever as the largest prime found by hand calculations.
    

I shudder to imagine the holocaust which would have to happen before this
record could be broken. Though I suppose we may find an alien species who
might have found a larger prime "by hand."

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rwmj
It could happen (without catastrophe/aliens) if: (a) someone discovered a
pattern like the Mersenne numbers which unreliably produces primes that are
much larger than Mersenne numbers, and (b) someone discovers, by hand, a proof
that one of these new numbers is prime. Such a discovery would be wonderful:
new mathematics that could give us insight into what primes really are.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Mersenne_number> might be one place to
start.

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pestaa
I'd like to understand why primes are believed to be really _something_ , can
you please elaborate?

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eru
Sorry, could you please clarify your question?

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pestaa
I didn't know why primes are considered special, apart from the basic
requirement they fulfill. GP sounded like they might serve a bigger unknown
purpose.

~~~
eru
A study of number theory will enlighten you. By the way, 2 is most special
prime. Lots of nice theorems about prime numbers have special cases for 2.

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tantalor
We haven't seen a prime larger than M43112609 since 2008. What gives?

This page claims to have been last updated 21 April 2012,
<http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html>

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Jimmie
As tectonic links, Wolfram Alpha gives the same result.

I'm not sure why we haven't found any more lately though, but the information
seems to be correct.

The wikipedia page is interesting. We have discovered new large primes since
2008, they just haven't been bigger.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_known_prime_number>

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jakejake
I wonder how long it would take running the prime number shitting bear to
discover a new prime...? <http://alpha61.com/primenumbershittingbear/>

~~~
eru
What do you mean by `new'? A prime that hasn't been seen by any human? Or a
new largest prime?

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tectonic
WolframAlpha: <http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=largest+known+prime>

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tantalor
See also <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_known_prime_number>

