> << Does anybody have any information about Mersenne Primes > being the subject of the Final Jeopardy round on the Nov 23 show? >> > > Last night I hurriedly ran out of the computer room to catch the final bit of > Jeopardy. Apparently no one *grumble grumble* got the question. Trebek > proceeded to begin to read the DECIMAL EXPANSION of the largest prime number. > Started with a 1. Don't know if it was 2^3021377-1 or not. > Darn Jeopardy contestants. Don't know squat about number theory.... > STL Well 2^3021377-1 does begin with a 1 so it's pretty likely. George keeps a copy at http://www.mersenne.org/files/prime3.txt if you want to see it. It's a good job Trebek didn't have to read out the whole thing. At 2 digits per second it takes over 5 days non-stop to read it out (according to my maths). At least they asked a question about number theory. Pity they couldn't plug GIMPS at the same time. Regards Steve
