Please don't be so quick to tell people to "FAQ Off" or an equivalent.
Any barriers to newbies joining in is a barrier to the exponential
growth of GIMPS.
I would like to see more communication on this subject and whilst
some of the Maths is beyond me and some of the Computing is
beneath my interest, my keyboard has a PageDown and a Delete
key.
I find GIMPS and this mailing list interesting because it helps me
learn more Maths.
> Hi,
>
> I have a few questions which are not in the FAQ :
>
> - - - What about testing F24 with Pepin's test ?
>
>
>
> *** I heard from John Selfridge and several others that such a computation
> is
> now underway.
>
>
>
> - - - Long ago ;-) I made some investigations about the period of inverse of
> prime numbers (1/p) (Is this good English ?).
>
>
>
> *** Why? The mathematics is simple and well understood and has been known
> for centuries. Did you check the literature first, before wasting your
> time??
> What is it that causes people NOT to do even elementary reading first?
>
I must admit that I haven't done even the elementary reading, yet I still
find this topic interesting.
Actually I have read a couple of books on Elementary Number Theory
and I can't remember this. (This is not a proof that the subject wasn't in
those books :-)
> I found an empiric relation between the number of digits of the period
> (d) et the fact that p is prime, namely that d is a divisor of p-1. I
> have been told that this was proved by Gauss.
>
>
> *** As, I said, try reading a book on elementary number theory. Look
> up "Lagrange's Theorem".
>
OK, I will. Is there a Web page about this? ;-)
>
> Is there a Web page about this ?
>
> ** Does everything have to be on the Web?
>
That would be nice.
> Have people gotten too lazy to use
> a
> library?
>
No. I like libraries.
Within arms reach I have multiple sessions to one of the fastest internet
links in the world.
Conversely I do not know of an accessible English Language good Maths
library near Nuremberg.
>
> Is this could be of any use in the search for large primes ?
>
Valid question.
The answer is probably "No", but it is a valid question.
Cheers,
Paul Landon
ps. How about one of the more knowledgeable Mathematicians (or Computer
Scientists) regularly communicating a little tutorial on an interesting subject
of
their choosing?
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