Mersenne Digest Sunday, November 21 1999 Volume 01 : Number 662 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 22:13:20 EST From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mersenne: Quiet list? Why is the list so abnormally quiet? Is everyone vacationing? S.T.L. _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 20:27:12 -0800 From: Spike Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: Quiet list? [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Why is the list so abnormally quiet? Is everyone vacationing? Ive been reading up on chaos theory to see if we can predict patterns in the number of postings. This looks like a classic application of choas theory. Is anyone here up to speed on that? I have four chat groups. The total number of posts I receive each day is far more predictable than the number of posts on GIMPS. Predictably. {8^D spike _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 12:32:27 +0000 From: "Steinar H. Gunderson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: Re: Quiet list? On Fri, Nov 19, 1999 at 08:27:12PM -0800, Spike Jones wrote: >The total number of posts >I receive each day is far more predictable than the number >of posts on GIMPS. Predictably. Funnily enough, when I receive nothing from GIMPS, I receive nothing from other people either! (No, this is not a mail burp. I still receive _some_ mail.) To get you something to do, here's an interesting problem. The beaty if it, is that you could do it by brute-force, or you could simply look at it, or see a solution and solve it in under a minute. Pen and paper allowed only -- no calculators, computers etc. First, perhaps I should explain some notation :-) a_11 is the letter `a', followed by 11 in subscript. x^2 is the letter `x', followed by the letter 2 in superscript (ie. `x^2' would be mathematically the same as `x*x'). OK, here goes: If (3x^2 - x - 2)^6 = (a_12)x^12 + (a_11)x^11 + ... + (a_1)x + a_0, what is a_0 + a_2 + a_4 + ... + a_12? The answer is an integer from 0 to 999, inclusive. (This is just one of the problems from something called the `Abel contest', a voluntary contest in maths open to all pupils (<21, but in general nobody under 18 enters) in Norway. They have a tradition of making problems requiring very little actual mathematical knowledge (generally if you know (a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2 and Pythagoras, you have 90% of what you need), but more requiring the right way of thinking. Also, only pen and paper is used, to prevent some ways of solving the problems... This question was number 9 (of 10), from the second round, where the contestants (the 10% best from round one) are given 100 minutes to try to solve the 10 questions.) Hope most of you see the quick solution :-) Please don't post the answer to the list quite yet, give people their time... /* Steinar */ - -- Homepage: http://members.xoom.com/sneeze/ _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 13:58:25 -0500 (EST) From: Chip Lynch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: Quiet list? Of course, we've got a classic chaotic feedback mechanism in place... if the list is too quiet (posts per unit time is low), a thread will spontaneously create itself to discuss the fact, immediately rendering the list less quiet (increasing the post per unit time). The normal traffic (e-mails not related to the lack of e-mails) could be chaotic, but over the long haul is inexorably linked (I'd wager) to the distributions of mersenne primes. That is, if you were to align the graphs of mailing list traffic by time next to our progress towards finding mersenne primes by time, you'd see huge influxes of traffic when we found another prime (and probably when someone else finds one). That sort of predictable dependance (fight about how predictable mersenne primes are later) on an outside 'force' makes that sort of traffic non-chaotic... right? Alright, it's been a while... I haven't messed with Chaos theory since those nice julia set posters were first starting to be pretty. But still; it's something to ponder. - ---Chip On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Spike Jones wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Why is the list so abnormally quiet? Is everyone vacationing? > > Ive been reading up on chaos theory to see if we can predict > patterns in the number of postings. This looks like a classic > application of choas theory. Is anyone here up to speed on > that? I have four chat groups. The total number of posts > I receive each day is far more predictable than the number > of posts on GIMPS. Predictably. {8^D spike > > _________________________________________________________________ > Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm > Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers > \\ ^ // (o o) ---oOO--(_)--OOo------------------------------------ | Chip Lynch | Computer Guru | | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | | (703) 465-4176 (w) | (202) 362-7978 (h) | ---------------------------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 02:23:16 -0000 From: "Ian L McLoughlin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: Quiet List.. Well, I got three numbers up in the U.K. lottery tonight.... Having not had a win with a balanced perm of 12 integers from (1-49)...25 lines.per week..balanced mid point,I know I shall have another win in the next three weeks.. Things tend to come in clusters.... p.s My chance of 6 numbers from the 12 from 49 is,er rrr15,134:1 , I think(No guarantee of course as it would cost me er...�928 every week.. Well, its still better than 19,283,416, I think er ..of 6 from 49 pool.. Sorry. Anybody got any good roulette theories... (O.K. List is quiet....could be a related thread...?) Ian McLoughlin, Chematek U.K. Tel/Fax : +44(0)1904 679906 Mobile : +44(0)7801 823421 Website: www.chematekuk.co.uk _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 21:31:14 -0500 From: Matthew Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Mersenne: Unreservation Prime95 just unreserved a number it gave me a few days ago. I had factored it for a day, and Primenet gave it to me for LL. Why did it take the number back? Matthew Smith _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1999 23:23:03 -0500 From: Matthew Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Mersenne: Unreservation I'm running 19.0.1. I thought that was the latest version. Matthew Smith George Woltman wrote: > At 09:31 PM 11/21/99 -0500, you wrote: > >Prime95 just unreserved a number it gave me a few days ago. > >I had factored it for a day, and Primenet gave it to me for > >LL. Why did it take the number back? > > Good question. What version are you running? A bug along these > lines was fixed in one of the beta releases of version 19.0. > > REgards, > George _________________________________________________________________ Unsubscribe & list info -- http://www.scruz.net/~luke/signup.htm Mersenne Prime FAQ -- http://www.tasam.com/~lrwiman/FAQ-mers ------------------------------ End of Mersenne Digest V1 #662 ******************************
