Hi Gerry,

At 11:03 AM 12/1/2001 -0800, Gerry Snyder wrote:
>I must be having a senior moment. I would swear George said that one way
>a person could lose credit for a correct LL test is if later factoring
>finds a factor.

This is because my rather limited reporting software only adds up the
LL results in the verified and one-LL-tests databases.  Once an exponent
is factored it is removed from those databases.

>Is my feeble brain making this up, or is finding a factor more important
>than stated above?

I prefer a factor to a double-check.  But it is hard to quantify "prefer" in a
mathematical formula for computing trial factoring limits.  Prime95 uses
the formula:   cost_of_factoring must be less than chance_of_finding_a_factor
times 2.03 * the cost_of_an_LL_test.

This should maximize GIMPS throughput.  The 2.03 is because we must run
two (or more) LL tests to do a double-check.

-- George

P.S.  I'll comment on the M#39 news later.  For now lets celebrate our
grand accomplishment rather than worry about non-optimal press coverage.

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