I suppose going with the Fibonacci Quarterly is a guaranteed to way to get something published quickly, seeing as it's editor is also GIMPS top contributor and two-time prime finder.

Oddly enough, I'm working on a problem set for a class taught by one of the members of the board of the FQ. I should probably get back to that.

[QUOTE=Jeff Gilchrist;142801]So it has been a busy day for me. Three interviews with papers, and also an interview on CBC Radio, which will be broadcast tonight on "As It Happens" a national wide program. I believe it is streamed online and will also be available afterwards as a downloadable file.

[url]http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/[/url]

This is the information I have from the producer:



I don't even remember what I said now so hopefully it all makes sense. They wanted me to read the number (well the very first part) so they are supposed to be mixing into the rest of the program just to stress how long it is. Hopefully that turns out well.

Jeff.[/QUOTE]

Heard it ... well done .... yeah Canada ... yeah GIMPS

[QUOTE=Prime95;142684][B]Congratulations and thanks to everyone!!!![/B] GIMPS is a group effort. While a few lucky discoverers get the glory, they couldn't have done it without all the hard work put in by the rest of you.

You are hereby ordered to have a celebratory drink tonight.

Thanks too for your patience during the verification and announcement process.[/QUOTE]

Captain Morgan's Parrot Bay Rum with natural coconut flavor and Pineapple Juice here.

On the page [url]http://www.mersenne.org/prize.htm[/url]

"For tax reasons, no money will be awarded until GIMPS is incorporated as a non-profit organization. You are responsible for all applicable taxes."

That looks like a massively tedious bureaucratic process that could take a very long time... It does make me wonder how the $50,000 prize was dealt with. Has Nayan Hajratwala, the discoverer of M38, actually received the money?

EDIT: I guess so... [url]http://isthe.com/chongo/photo/landon/eff-prime-awards/index.html[/url]

On the other hand, all of the prize money went to the discoverer. That probably simplified the process of awarding the money and may not reflect how things go this time.

We got mentioned on theglobeandmail.com: [url]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080916.wprime0916/BNStory/National/home[/url]

[QUOTE][B]Carleton University student helps discover largest known prime number[/B]

The Canadian Press
September 16, 2008 at 11:39 PM EDT

OTTAWA — Carleton University doctoral student Jeff Gilchrist has a thing for numbers.

Working with an international team, Mr. Gilchrist has helped to discover the largest known prime number, at a whopping 12.9 million digits.

The discovery qualifies his team for a $100,000 prize, awarded by the U.S.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

This is the first time number crunchers have been able to crack the 10 million digit threshold when identifying prime numbers.

In the mathematics field, “it's sort of like an Olympian breaking a world record,” said Mr. Gilchrist. “It's very exciting.”

To put the number's sheer size in perspective, Mr. Gilchrist said if you were to write every digit down, it would be enough to fill a 3,200-page book.

Prime numbers are unique in that they can only be divided by one or themselves.

“Just that there's this huge number and there's no way to evenly break it down, I think that in itself is fascinating,” said Gilchrist.

The massive record-breaking number was first discovered by Edson Smith, a California-based member of the volunteer team the Great Internet Mersenne Prime [Search].

The group is comprised of hundreds of algorithm enthusiasts around the world who donate computing resources and volunteer hours.

Mr. Gilchrist later performed an independent verification of the number to ensure it was indeed prime.

That process took 16 days for a supercomputer to run the numbers.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Kevin;142853]I suppose going with the Fibonacci Quarterly is a guaranteed to way to get something published quickly, seeing as it's editor is also GIMPS top contributor and two-time prime finder.

Oddly enough, I'm working on a problem set for a class taught by one of the members of the board of the FQ. I should probably get back to that.[/QUOTE]

This time the link is even stronger. By publishing, the editor stands to gain $6,667 for two Mersenne prime discoveries. I wouldn't recommend trying to publish in the Fibonacci Quarterly this time; it might look like a conflict of interest.

The next issue of the Fibonacci Quarterly is in November; so I guess we could find out then.

[QUOTE=ATH;142833]3 | 2^37156667+1
3 | 2^43112609+1
[/QUOTE]

Right, but since the algebraic factor 3 is a given, the NMC cares only about primitive factors. So I didn't bother listing 3.

Alex

Ah yes, if (2[sup]p[/sup]+1)/3 was prime, NMC would be vialated. Sorry I was sure I was missing something.

So I was very busy yesterday, but managed to get lots of press coverage thanks mostly in part to our great PR person Lin Moody at Carleton University.

In today's papers we are in:[LIST][*][URL="http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/city/story.html?id=2503dfcc-dd02-4e73-9652-0d06f138eba8"]Ottawa Citizen[/URL][*][URL="http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/113394"]Metro Ottawa[/URL][*][URL="http://www.ottawasun.com/News/OttawaAndRegion/2008/09/17/6787686-sun.html"]Ottawa Sun[/URL][*][URL="http://www.thestar.com/article/500553"]Toronto Star[/URL][*]Lots of smaller papers across Canada since the Canadian Press picked up the story[/LIST]
And if you missed the radio broadcast last night, you can find it online still here:
[url]http://www.cbc.ca/radioshows/AS_IT_HAPPENS/20080916.shtml[/url]

Sorry to George and Scott, during the radio interview I had a mental spasm when I said, "two guys from Florida and California are..." and forgot to mention your names. I find radio difficult in interviews since you don't have time to think about your answer first and can't go back after to fix anything.

I am happy that most of the articles have the details correct and I was extra careful to make sure people understood that I verified the prime but did not discover it. Also, check out my new avatar, the photo a couple of the newspaper articles (the photographers showed up at the same time and liked the same idea) had the largest of the primes partially displayed across my face.

Jeff.

I have noticed that some of those pages omit the ^ sign, so that the new prime is reported as 243112609-1 (which is obviously neither above 10 million digits nor a prime).

[QUOTE=jinydu;142909]I have noticed that some of those pages omit the ^ sign, so that the new prime is reported as 243112609-1 (which is obviously neither above 10 million digits nor a prime).[/QUOTE]

Yes I saw that too, formatting error I guess. They might have just copied and pasted some text and the superscript got lost. :sad: