The Search for Prime Numbers

For ages Prime numbers and their randomness have baffled and intrigued mathematicians, and it has become a tradition to search for these entrancing numbers. Euclid may been the first mathematician to define primality in about 300 B.C.(primes.utm.edu), and there the search began! Ever since then prime numbers, particularly large primes, have been studied and searched for by some of the greatest mathematicians of all time! Some names you might recognize who have searched for these large prime numbers are Descartes, Fermat, Mersenne, Leibniz, Euler, and countless more!

Aside from the simple tradition and excitement that comes with finding new prime numbers, there are other motivations as well! Not only is there great fame associated with finding these numbers, but there's even some prize money offered! The Electronic Frontier Foundation or "EFF " has offered large sums of prize money for finding large primes that cross certain mile markers.

The picture below was taken from the "EFF " website describing the different sums that they offer! (eff.org)

"EFF " also offers a $3000 dollar finders fee for any previously undiscovered prime number found and proven.

Below I've included a very interesting TED talk by Adam Spencer, which explains more about this search for prime numbers and his passion for it. Enjoy!

Just as Adam talked about in the above video, todays technology has opened up incredible new possibilities when it comes to finding these monster prime numbers! The worlds ever increasing access to the internet has resulted in something called "GIMPS " or the "Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search". "GIMPS " is a group effort made by people all over the world by people who have downloaded the software and are letting their computers constantly run these calculations. "GIMPS " is an online effort consisting of over 360,000 CPUs, with total calculations peaking at 150 trillion per second (Science Daily, Feb 13, 2013). This internet group effort has dominated the search for monster prime numbers since its creation in 1996, and to this date it has found 14 massive Mersenne Prime numbers many of which broke the world record for largest prime number at the time of their discovery!

The current world record for largest prime number was found by Dr. Cutis Cooper (through "GIMPS ") on January 25th, 2013. This world record prime is 2^57,885,161-1, and has 17,425,170 digits. Incredible right?

Now everyone can download this software, and through "GIMPS " we can all participate in finding these monster prime numbers!