Talk:Two largest known prime numbers discovered just two weeks apart, one qualifies for $100k prize

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Well, all Mersenne primes are primes, and most of the big ones found these days are Mersenne primes for various reasons. I think a little note like "Prime numbers have many applications in number theory, and are also used in computer encryption algorithms" to give some context of why they search for big primes (although of course the real reason is "because we can"). Chris Mann (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 23:30, 17 September 2008 (UTC)



[edit] clarification

I believe I made a mistake while editing the article. I incorrectly thought that Tom Duell, Rob Giltrap, Tony Reix and Jeff Gilchrist each verified both primes, meaning that both number were checked four times.

However, from what I've been told, each number was only checked three times:

  • Duell and Giltrap each checked one of the numbers
  • Reix checked both numbers
  • Gilchrist checked both numbers

I guess this is a moot point because the article never said there were four verifications; it merely stated that four members of GIMPS' verification team were involved.

I'm just posting this as an FYI. --Ixfd64 (talk) 19:13, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

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