George Louis wrote: > Dear mathematicians, > > Is anyone interested in the following: > I've developed a recursive infinite sequence that includes many prime > numbers and gets larger much faster than the Mersenne number sequence. > It's not related to the Merseeene numbers. Because of it nature it's > much easier to test and prove that a give number of the sequence is a > prime than it is to prove those of the Merseene number sequence are > prime, i.e. much less computing power. Could I still win all the > prizes totaling $500,000 if I use my own sequence and prove that some > of its large terms are prime numbers? If I generate and prove that > one of its terms that's greater than 10 to the 9th power, will I only > win $250,000 or will I also win the other $250,000 prizes because the > prime is larger than those required for the lessor prizes? If I > wouldn't win the other prizes then I wait until I've found numbers of > the sequence that exceed each of the lessor requirements because my > proof of my proffered prime number would enable others to generate and > test those numbers and possibly win the other prizes before I'm ready. > I believe that it may be relatively easy for me to find a prime > number exceeding 10 to the 12th power with my sequence and testing > that proves that a give member of the sequence is prime. >
I don't believe Mr. Louis is a subscriber to this list, so he probably didn't see the other replies. Let me summarize. several folks pointed out the current largest mersenne primes are in the 10^9000000 range, not 10^9, i..e they are over 9 million digits long. finding a prime in the 10^9 range is trivial, and takes only milliseconds, whereas testing a prime candidate in the 10^10^9 range takes several days on the fastest processors available today. the actual contest is being administrated by the EFF, Electronic Frontiers Foundation, not by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search with which this list is associated... For rules etc, see http://www.eff.org/awards/coop.php _______________________________________________ Prime mailing list [email protected] http://hogranch.com/mailman/listinfo/prime
