Wang Hao put down the phone and suddenly became a little frustrated. He originally wanted to find a few more Mersenne primes and make a million dollars in one go, but...
GIMPS is a poor family?
What else are we looking for Mersenne primes? What’s the point?
Zhang Zhiqiang couldn't help but ask, "There is no bonus... should we continue?"
"Of course continue!"
I don't know when Chen Qinghua came over. He pointed to the handwritten sign at the door and said seriously, "Look, what is the name of this laboratory? Mason Mathematical Science Laboratory?"
"Are we looking for Mersenne numbers to get bonuses? No, we are doing it for scientific research and mathematical research!"
"As long as the server can still be used and the computer can still hold up, we must continue testing!"
"..."
"..."
Wang Hao and Zhang Zhiqiang looked at each other and suddenly realized that Luan Haiping had a reason to hate Chen Qinghua.
This old man really has no bottom line.
The so-called 'Mason Mathematical Science Laboratory' was completely made up, but he could actually say it shamelessly and express his admiration for mathematical research in a serious manner?
In fact, isn't it just a show of preparing to spend money to expand the laboratory?
All right.
After all, it is for the development of the laboratory. It is not a complete deception. At least the purpose is very good.
Test, continue.
Wang Hao didn't care much about the test results. GIMPS couldn't pay enough bonuses, so it didn't matter whether it could detect Mersenne primes.
Even though I knew in my heart that GIMPS had no money, I still felt like I was losing a million dollars.
In this research content, without the attraction of bonuses, it is really meaningless to continue to verify other Mersenne numbers.
There is only one number that makes sense right now, a number calculated through simple verification——
7XXXXXXXX.
This is a nine-digit number.
The two functions he created have intersection lines, and as long as the number on the intersection line is a prime number, the corresponding Mersenne number must be a Mersenne prime number.
From this, you can use the program to easily calculate a few numbers.
Wang Hao calculated a total of seven numbers. Later, due to the influence of exponential complexity, the calculation will become very complicated.
Among the Mersenne primes corresponding to the seven exponents, the first six have been verified, leaving only the largest one that has not been verified.
The exponent of this number is a nine-digit number starting with "seven", and GIMPS's Mersenne number calculation has not yet reached the nine-digit level.
Calculation and primality testing of the nine-digit numbers starting with 'seven' and the corresponding Mersenne numbers will take more than 500 hours with the hardware capabilities of the computer laboratory, and there may even be problems such as insufficient storage space for numbers.
, if there is a slight error in the calculation midway, all the efforts will be in vain.
The reason why this number is valuable is that the Mersenne prime number it corresponds to must be a billion-digit number.
The EFF Company once offered a reward for very large prime numbers, setting up a $50,000 reward for the first person to discover a prime number with more than one million digits, and a $100,000 reward for the first person to discover a prime number with more than 10 million digits.
At the same time, US$150,000 was set up to reward those who discover prime numbers with more than 100 million digits.
Of course.
To detect and verify the primality of billion-digit numbers, the calculation itself will have huge costs, but at the same time, the first person or institution to discover a billion-digit prime number will also win the honor of being recorded in the history of mathematics.
The US$150,000 is just a bonus. The real attraction is the honor of discovering the largest prime number.
"This number may be worth more than a lottery ticket that won 5 million." Wang Hao has a bottom line for valuation.
With some expectations, he left the computer laboratory with Chen Qinghua and went to the large classroom in the teaching building, preparing to be interviewed by reporters.
Reporters can't wait for a long time.
Among the dozens of journalists who came, some even waited for two days just to interview Wang Hao. They had been waiting for all the prime numbers to be verified, and public opinion seemed to have no momentum to stop, so they had to keep waiting.
Interviewed.
Some reporters are also very dissatisfied. They feel that Wang Hao is trying to be a big name, but there is no good way to do this. When they came, the computer laboratory made it clear that Wang Hao would not make it public until the results of the Mersenne number test came out.
Be interviewed.
Because of this, the reporters are even more looking forward to it. They all know that Wang Hao will definitely talk about the 'results' issue that the public is most concerned about.
There were a lot of reporters coming, so the interview was arranged in a large classroom.
Wang Hao sat in the center of the podium and looked at the reporters sitting there. He felt as if he was giving a lecture to students. There were various sound equipment hanging on the podium and cameras set up on both sides.
, it feels like a celebrity attending a press conference.
Zhang Zhiqiang sat next to him like an assistant. He was supporting Wang Hao, and by the way, he showed up on behalf of the computer laboratory.
The news interview officially begins.
A reporter on the right first asked, "Professor Wang Hao, the Mersenne Number Science Laboratory has found five Mersenne primes in a row. What many people are concerned about is, have you found the law of Mersenne primes? Can you combine them?"
Find all the Mersenne primes?”
Wang Hao shook his head and said, "I did find some laws of Mersenne primes, but my research did not cover all Mersenne primes, so it is incomplete from a mathematical point of view."
The next reporter asked directly, "Professor Wang Hao, can you introduce us to your results?"
"sure."
Wang Haoren explained seriously, "Based on the research on Mersenne prime numbers, I created two functions to cover a part of the Mersenne prime numbers, with a ratio of about two-thirds."
"The two functions are like this."
Wang Hao found a sense of lecturing. He picked up the chalk, turned to the blackboard and drew a three-dimensional coordinate and a function image. However, due to his limited drawing skills, the function image was a bit complicated, so he revised it many times.
Still not satisfied, I could only shake my head in the end and drew another simpler function graph.
"These are the two functions I created, one is a calculation function and the other is a decision function."
"We can see that there are many areas inside the decision function."
"The closer the coordinate points in these areas are to the edge, I think the stronger the primality of the corresponding Mersenne number will be. There is also a possibility that it itself is a Mersenne prime number."
"As long as the coordinate point at the edge of the determination corresponds to a Mersenne number, it will definitely be a Mersenne prime number."
Wang Hao turned around and said seriously, "I mentioned the word prime just now. In numbers, a prime number is a prime number, and a non-prime number is a non-prime number. But in my research, the definition of prime is that it can be decomposed
The fewer factors, the higher the prime..."
"You can understand it this way. For example, the prime property of 9 is stronger than that of 12, because the factors of 9 are only 3, while the factors of 12 are 3 and 2."
"Bala bala~~~"
Wang Hao entered the teaching mode and began to talk about his research seriously. He was not explaining the details of the research, but just giving an introduction to everyone.
The row of professors standing nearby listened with great interest and felt that they all understood it.
The reporters in the middle were all stunned. Even among their middle school students, even those with higher academic qualifications only went to better universities. They all graduated in media or journalism, or they must have majored in liberal arts, even if a few of them were engineering graduates.
, when it comes to complex mathematics, I can only throw up my hands and surrender.
When Wang Hao started talking, they couldn't listen anymore. They just wanted to record it with a camera and a voice recorder, and then slowly sort it out and study it when they got back, or send it all directly to the report.
Some people also felt bitter in their hearts, "I'm obviously here for an interview, so why did I listen to the math class? And the people next to me were listening so seriously..."
"If I am seen as being completely incomprehensible, will I be despised as having a low cultural level?"
"You must pretend to understand!"
Many reporters think so.
A very strange situation suddenly occurred in the classroom. It was obviously a news interview activity, but it seemed to have turned into a mathematics classroom. Everyone in the audience listened attentively and nodded frequently.
This atmosphere also gives Wang Hao, as a teacher, a sense of accomplishment.
have a look!
Who can make a journalist understand the mathematical content he is talking about?
He spoke more energetically.
To be continued...