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Fri, 28 Dec 2001 15:12:42 -0800
THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY December 28, 2001 Mersenne prime ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: VeriSign - The Value of Trust FREE E-COMMERCE SECURITY GUIDE from VeriSign. Want to kick your online sales to the next level -- while protecting your company from online fraud? And do it QUICKLY, AFFORDABLY and SECURELY? Get your FREE copy of "How to Build an E-Commerce Web Site" today: http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;3731847;5058249;r?http://www.verisign.com/cgi-bin/go.cgi?a=n095155740616000 ______________ TODAY'S WORD: Mersenne prime See our definition with hyperlinks at http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci788348,00.html A Mersenne (also spelled Marsenne) prime is a specific type of prime number. It must be reducible to the form 2n - 1, where n is a prime number. The term comes from the surname of a French monk who first defined it. The first few known values of n that produce Mersenne primes are n = 2, n = 3, n = 5, n = 7, n = 13, n = 17, n = 19, n = 31, n = 61, and n = 89. With the advent of computers to perform number-crunching tasks formerly done by humans, ever-larger Mersenne primes (and primes in general) have been found. The quest to find prime numbers is akin to other numerical searches done by computers. Examples are the decimal expansions of irrational numbers such as pi (the circumference-to-diameter ratio of a circle) or e (the natural logarithm base). But the 'next' (unknown today, known tomorrow) prime is more difficult to find than the 'next' digit in the expansion of an irrational number. It takes the most powerful computer a long time to check a large number to determine if it is prime, and an even longer time to determine if it is a Mersenne prime. For this reason, Mersenne primes are of particular interest to developers of strong encryption methods. RELATED TERMS: prime number http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci284011,00.html irrational number http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci283983,00.html encryption http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci212062,00.html _________________ SELECTED LINKS Chris Caldwell discusses the history of Mersenne primes and provide links to more information. http://primes.utm.edu/glossary/page.php/Mersennes.html ____________________________________ DO YOU KNOW ME? YOU SHOULD! | Quiz #18 Who invented CTRL-ALT-DELETE? Whose voice greets AOL users each day with "Welcome, you've got mail"? Test your knowledge of computer trivia and learn something new along the way! >>Go to quiz: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci787751,00.html ______________________ WIN AN XBOX | HELP YOUR PEERS Tell your peers about our helpful definitions, industry news, and Fast References - and an XBox Video Game System could be yours. Click here for info on how to win: http://whatis.techtarget.com/referFriendContest/1,290949,sid9,00.html?promo_code=xbox ______________________________________ STORAGE MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE | Hosted by searchStorage Update: Gain critical business continuity strategies plus backup and disaster recovery expertise at the only independent storage-specific conference focused on storage management. Apply early to qualify to attend FREE at: http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;3559407;5058249;r?http://www.storagemanagement2002.com _________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] chaffing and winnowing http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci786707,00.html [2] operational data store http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid13_gci786730,00.html [3] Our latest discovery http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci331047,00.html [4] SWIFT http://searchebusiness.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci786981,00.html [5] MDI/MDIX http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci786996,00.html ======================================================== If you would like to sponsor this or any techtarget newsletter, please contact Gabrielle DeRussy at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ======================================================== If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter simply reply to this message with "REMOVE" in the subject line. Or, visit http://WhatIs.techtarget.com/register and adjust your subscriptions accordingly. If you choose to unsubscribe using our automated processing, you must send the "REMOVE" request from the email account to which this newsletter was delivered. Please allow 24 hours for your "REMOVE" request to be processed.