One year, 41M digits: How Luke Durant found the largest known prime number
31 points by ortusdux 6 hours ago | 10 comments
  • dang 3 hours ago |
    Recent and related:

    GIMPS Discovers Largest Known Prime Number: 2^136279841 – 1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41904237 - Oct 2024 (11 comments)

    New Mersenne Prime discovered (probably) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41858024 - Oct 2024 (120 comments)

  • dang 3 hours ago |
    We changed the url above from https://www.popsci.com/science/largest-prime-number/ to the article it points to.
  • neonate 3 hours ago |
  • kevmo314 3 hours ago |
    > Durant, who made his money off the boom, said he put his time and money into the project to show people that they aren’t helpless to technology giants and that we can figure out massive problems if we work together.

    I can appreciate the sentiment but

    > The discovery was the result of almost exactly one year of work and about $2 million of Durant’s own money.

    doesn't really show me much especially since

    > The prime number Durant discovered serves no real purpose for society.

    This sort of shows the opposite: if it takes $2M to discover something that doesn't have a real purpose, yeah I definitely feel a bit helpless against tech giants trying to do anything that is marginally useful.

    • dustfinger 3 hours ago |
      Ha, we both basically posted the same thing ( see above )!
  • dustfinger 3 hours ago |
    > The discovery was the result of almost exactly one year of work and about $2 million of Durant’s own money.

    > Durant, who made his money off the boom, said he put his time and money into the project to show people that they aren’t helpless to technology giants and that we can figure out massive problems if we work together.

    If I sold absolutely everything I owned, I would not even have close to half of what it Durant invested in his pet project. While I like his intended sentiment, I can't help but notice the irony.

    • gerdesj an hour ago |
      "If I sold absolutely everything I owned"

      Quite. I get the point but why not volunteer (to do something) and really show your grit?

      Pissing around with M primes and trying to make a point is a bit wank as a stance from a multi-zillionaire.

      He isn't helpless (to technology giants and that we can figure out massive problems if we work together.)

      ... and that's lovely.

  • mrbluecoat an hour ago |
    > The discovery was the result of almost exactly one year of work and about $2 million of Durant’s own money. ... The prime number Durant discovered serves no real purpose for society.

    Not sure how to react to this.

  • erk__ an hour ago |
    He was also interviewed by Numberphile when it was first published. The interview was released in both a full and a cut version.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5AfwLFPxWIWS5Jd3k5QHdc0...

  • sega_sai 30 minutes ago |
    I understand some negative comments here, that this was somewhat pointless waste of money. But I would argue that him spending 2M$ is in the same category of people spending money to do climb a mountain nobody did climb, or beat world circumnavigation record etc. I.e. this is a bit of hunt for glory. And in some sense it's not the worst one.