First largest number

2001/12/03 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Matematika
• Softwarea

Research by individuals has become fashionable. There are many calculations that do not require a large computing capacity. But scientists have invented a new method for these calculations. Through the Internet they distribute simple programs to perform this task, anyone can install one of them, which works as screensavers. Thus, with the computer on, the time we are not using is spent on those estimates. Finally, the results obtained will be automatically returned to the scientists of the network.

Through this type of methods, in recent years research has begun such as the study of protein folding pathways, the search for new stars, etc. In this way, the calculation of prime numbers was also carried out, by which the thirty-ninth of the Mersenne series was found.

The mathematician Mersenne proposed that, starting from any number first, another number can be calculated using a simple formula, 2 ^p -1. When this initial number is very large, this simple calculation requires an extremely long CPU time. The project with this mission, called Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), is underway. In mid-November, within this project, and through computers of individuals, the nineteenth of this series has been calculated. The result, of about 2 million digits, was obtained by the Canadian Michael Cameron of 20 years. Now you will proceed to check by a giant computer that this answer is correct.