At 12:08 AM 6/18/99 -0400, lrwiman wrote:
>
>True, the probability of a given n being prime is ~1/log(n), and
>the sum from 1 to infinity of 1/log(2^p-1)~=log(2)*sum from 1 to infinity 1/p
>which euler proved is infinite. I think that the probability of 2^p-1 being
>prime is considerably higher than most numbers that big, because they can
>only be divisable by numbers of the form 2*k*p+1,
That's true, so Mersenne numbers are even more likely to be prime, due to the
limited number of potential factors.
>Well, I don't know about that. Using conjectured behavior of Mersenne primes
>to argue other conjectures...
They fit the formula that the nth Mersenne exponent is approximately (3/2)^n
pretty well. That isn't a proof, of course, but it is a strong suggestion.
+----------------------------------------------+
| Jud "program first and think later" McCranie |
+----------------------------------------------+
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