Marin Mersenne Documentary

[M29]

Part 1 of 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psfkpfstj8E

Part 2 of 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWyCJT-ISOE

[TheMawn]

Not so much about Mersenne. Some interesting stuff, however. I always wonder what people like that would say if they saw all the things we have accomplished, standing on their shoulders.

[firejuggler]

I guess something along the line of ' You are heavy, get off my shoulders!"

[only_human]

Originally Posted by firejuggler

I guess something along the line of ' You are heavy, get off my shoulders!"

and the people on top would say: "Hey, I can see my house from here!"

[only_human]

This entertaining 17 minute entry level TED talk is mostly about Mersenne Prime numbers. This is almost no mathematics - it is intended to be accessible to anyone.

When I was a kid, a friend was intimidated by a book I was reading because it was thick and the print was small but we now have a generation of kids that grew up reading the Harry Potter novels and they won't be intimidated by thick books again. Adam Spencer tells us that the latest Mersenne Prime number (discovered by Curtis Cooper), if printed in book form, would be 1.5 times as wide as all the Harry Potter books stacked together. This is a cool age with the technology and ability to do many things as this video suggests as it mentions the Higgs boson discovery and shows a smartphone controlled robot solving a Rubik's Cube (in about 5 seconds).

Adam Spencer: Why I fell in love with monster prime numbers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4xOFsygwr4

Published on Sep 3, 2013
They're millions of digits long, and it takes an army of mathematicians and machines to hunt them down -- what's not to love about monster primes? Adam Spencer, comedian and lifelong math geek, shares his passion for these odd numbers, and for the mysterious magic of math.