Searching for m. primes is like playing lottery

[joblack]

Searching for primes is like playing lottery ... a lot of fun and excitement :-).

Never thought it would be that way ...

[flosculus]

but is a better change to find one mersenne prime than getting the lottojackpot

[10metreh]

If you're a mathematician, you should know that a lottery is effectively a tax on people who are bad at maths.

[Nelson]

Originally Posted by 10metreh

If you're a mathematician, you should know that a lottery is effectively a tax on people who are bad at maths.

Now your getting more into the spirit of things here. That would apply as well to all gambling and insurances. The difference is who is collecting the levied taxes? Casino, Extortionist, legitimate businesses, who provide a sometimes questionable service or Government.

I wouldn't personally compare finding a mersenne prime to a lottery though since someone who would live long enough (eternal) could conceivably discover all primes mersenne or otherwise so the gimps project is an entity which will hopefully exist longer than most humans and effectively beginning since the dawn of creation has at least 7000+ years under its' belt has indeed. The difference is that in recent centuries beginning with more modern mathematicians like Euler and some earlier like Archimedes and Pythagorus and their interests in perfect numbers has made discovering very large Mersenne's feasible. Thanks to Fr. Mersennes and other researchers Christian tenacity the science has been more continuous than in previous millennea. Having a finite beginning limits our ability to discover an infinite number of primes at anytime but doesn't limit the possibility of finding another.

nelson

[R.D. Silverman]

Originally Posted by 10metreh

If you're a mathematician, you should know that a lottery is effectively a tax on people who are bad at maths.

On the other hand, if you are a competent mathematician, you will
realize that different people have different economic utility functions
and that the utility of winning a large amount of money more than
compensates for the small expected value loss.

[10metreh]

I'm not that sort of person though. That was just a joke.

[jasonp]

I used to think the lottery was a tax on innumeracy, but now I think it's even worse: a tax on daydreaming.

[10metreh]

It's both of those.

[victor]

Originally Posted by jasonp

now I think it's even worse: a tax on daydreaming.

I disagree.
Lottery doesn't tax daydreaming, it sells daydreaming. I mean, how could you dream of winning millions (and of what you would do with this money) if you don't even play to the lottery?

[joblack]

Originally Posted by R.D. Silverman

On the other hand, if you are a competent mathematician, you will
realize that different people have different economic utility functions
and that the utility of winning a large amount of money more than
compensates for the small expected value loss.

No playing lottery isn´t about a mathematician, it´s about an economist.

A mathematician would just say it isn´t impossible (but not probable) to win. An economist would say that the risk management doesn´t suggest to play lottery.

Btw. if you compare your electric bill for your four (or more) prime95 threads (runing 7/24) with the costs of playing lottery they aren´t that different.

You are only getting a "profit" if you´re idealistic and/or you want to get famous .

Anyway, I play lottery ... only a field to get the chance to win. But of course its not an investment with a steady profit.

[joblack]

Originally Posted by victor

I disagree.
Lottery doesn't tax daydreaming, it sells daydreaming. I mean, how could you dream of winning millions (and of what you would do with this money) if you don't even play to the lottery?

You can play lottery for free for instance under lotty.de or millionenklick.web.de - both with a jackpot about 1 MegaEuro.