Mersenne equivalent of sports stats

[kriesel]

Using sports stats as metaphors, what stats could be compiled for the players, or teams, or nations, etc in the Mersenne hunt?

Baseball:
home run as discovery of a new prime?
RBI as confirmation of a new prime?
Times at bat, exponents reserved?
Is a strike a factor not found?
A ball a factor found?
Foul ball a bad residue primality test?
(Most of us would have a batting average of zero, unless a matching residue primality test counts as a base hit.)

Volleyball:
Dig: TF
Set: P-1
Spike: primality test
Block at the net: factor found
League schedule ends: the next milestone


Super Bowl ring:
your team or name got attached to a Mersenne prime through its discovery and confirmation. Who has the most? (Ok, wise guy, other than Mersenne at 100%)

Win/loss record:
Coach with the highest percentage wins or most wins

Youngest to win (discover one)?
Oldest living discoverer?

Etc.


Have some fun with it!

[ewmayer]

A new-prime find is more akin to winning the so-called World Series - it even happens around once a year based on GIMPS' history.

Submitting fake results to inflate one's stats, OTOH, is analogous to corking one's bat. Not sure if extreme overclocking is like taking PEDs, though...

[The Carnivore]

Basketball:
Cat 4 tests = Half court playground ball
Cat 3 tests = Full court playground ball / middle school ball
Cat 2 tests = High school ball
Cat 1 tests = College ball
Cat 0 tests = NBA

Completing a doublecheck = free throw
Doing an error-free first time test = two point field goal
Completing a 100+ million decimal digit test = three pointer
Finding a factor = assist
Poaching an exponent = steal
Being the last person to check all exponents below a milestone: won game if the test is completed promptly and doesn't expire
Finding a Mersenne prime = Winning the NBA Finals

The 52nd season is currently underway.

[The Carnivore]

Originally Posted by The Carnivore

Being the last person to check all exponents below a milestone

The wording was a bit unclear, so that should have been "Checking the last exponent below a milestone". Anyway, for most sports, this would work:

Server down = weather delay
Wrong result/expired exponent = demoted to the minor leagues
Questionable primality claims = arguing with the refs

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Using sports stats as metaphors, what stats could be compiled for the players, or teams, or nations, etc in the Mersenne hunt?
...
Have some fun with it!

Lottery is the proper metaphor (and the most brutal one - like playing for the mega-double-zero on the roulette. No pussyfoot stuff - red/black, top/down - none of that.
Only the ultra-green slot 0000000000000000 on a 10-mile diameter roulette wheel -- or bust).

• Mersenne prime found = won the lottery.
• Mersenne LLRES!=0 found = ticket in the trash bin.
• Most attempts = most money donated to the school system (where part of the lottery tax goes IRL).
• Most P-1 done = most tickets bought and deliberately burnt without reading.
• Most TF done = most greek-language tickets bought (couldn't read what is written on them).

Couldn't resist. Killjoy!
Just think about it - where and what is the skill involved, if you call it a "game"? None, nowhere! Therefore by definition it is not a sport - it is a bet.
Not that there is anything wrong with betting - many people enjoy it.
Most incomplete information games are a balance of chance and skill with some approaching almost all skill + very little chance (e.g. backgammon to 21).
But this one is an enormous roulette, nothing else. You can play this roulette in large teams, but I personally could never understand "roulette teams".

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Batalov

Lottery is the proper metaphor (and the most brutal one - like playing for the mega-double-zero on the roulette. No pussyfoot stuff - red/black, top/down - none of that.
Only the ultra-green slot 0000000000000000 on a 10-mile diameter roulette wheel -- or bust).

• Mersenne prime found = won the lottery.
• Mersenne LLRES!=0 found = ticket in the trash bin.
• Most attempts = most money donated to the school system (where part of the lottery tax goes IRL).
• Most P-1 done = most tickets bought and deliberately burnt without reading.
• Most TF done = most greek-language tickets bought (couldn't read what is written on them).

Couldn't resist. Killjoy!
Just think about it - where and what is the skill involved, if you call it a "game"? None, nowhere! Therefore by definition it is not a sport - it is a bet.
Not that there is anything wrong with betting - many people enjoy it.
Most incomplete information games are a balance of chance and skill with some approaching almost all skill + very little chance (e.g. backgammon to 21).
But this one is an enormous roulette, nothing else. You can play this roulette in large teams, but I personally could never understand "roulette teams".

Winning the trifecta at the horse track on a bunch of nags? But I regard wagering as a distraction, amusement, addiction, or vice, not a sport.

The skill is in wringing maximum throughput out of a given set of hardware. Well, for us mere mortals. The guys that write tuned assembler or efficient gpu code are something else entirely, a rare breed.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

A new-prime find is more akin to winning the so-called World Series - it even happens around once a year based on GIMPS' history.

Or maybe setting a new world record in track and field events. There were years or decades where records stood unchanged. (Breaking the 4-minute mile, for instance.) There was a stretch of centuries where the Olympics were not held, so no new Olympic records.

[kladner]

1)

Lottery is the proper metaphor (and the most brutal one - like playing for the mega-double-zero on the roulette.

Most attempts = most money donated to the school system (where part of the lottery tax goes IRL).

1) In this household, we call it "voluntary taxation." The odds of winning are minute. The only saving grace is, if one buys only one ticket, the return on investment should one win, is astronomical, just like the odds against winning.
2) The school-support claim is mostly a scam, at least in Illinois. Money from the lottery goes into the school budget, while the legislature siphons it off via reduced appropriations.

[Dr Sardonicus]

The lottery is also a good analogy in the sense that it is not a good idea to play based on the expectation of winning, or worse, the "need" to win. With the lottery, of course, there is not much the player can do to increase the odds of winning significantly (unless they have enough dough to buy, say, all possible sets of numbers, or have the ability to rig the game -- which, as clicking the link shows, does not end well when you get caught). Buying lottery tickets is better viewed as a form of cheap thrills (you can buy several tickets, and still spend less than going to the movies, especially an IMAX or other fancy-format flick).

There is an important distinction, though, in that with the lottery, you don't have to do anything but "pay your money and take your chances." With GIMPS, you actually have to put forth effort to earn the prize. In my estimation, someone who hollers "I WANT TO GET THE PRIZE!" but is unwilling even to avail himself of the guidance offered in that part of the Forum, and learn how to participate, is not likely to receive it. Of course, anyone who thinks that simply wanting enough to win will make it happen, is unworthy even of pity.

BTW, speaking of Illinois and the lottery being a scam, a few years or so ago it was national news that, due to a budget impasse, lottery winners in Illinois couldn't collect their winnings. All they could get from the State of Illinois was an IOU.