Prime picking
Mark Baker (markb@mrburns.iosphere.net)
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 14:39:52 -0400 (EDT)
On Wed, 20 Aug 1997, Robert Harley wrote:
> While away, I ran a program to prove 2^5000+2157 prime. It's now the
> biggest general prime known, where "general" excludes those rare few
> which have special-purpose primality algorithms (for instance Mersenne
> numbers).
Terribly cool.
But I've gotta know this - how the hell does one even *think* to try that
number for primeness. Psychic Friends Network? Rumpelstiltskin?
MB