Prime Time

Ever wonder what mathematicians do all day? Me too.

I'd like to link them with a collegiate Philosophy department. Philosophy and Math are the basis for a lot of other majors--eg., English and Religious Studies for Philosophy; Physics and Chemistry for Math--but aren't extremely practical on their own. In Calculus, I ran into problems because we seemed to be playing around with numbers for no good reason. Whenever I asked my teacher, "Why does this theorem work here? Why can't I do it my way?" he'd say, "Because people have worked it out for you already." And then when I'd ask "But what does it do? If it doesn't do anything, why can't my answer be right? Who knows?" he'd say, "When you get to Advanced Physics, you have real uses for this."

Joke's on him. I never got to Advanced Physics.

I guess there are uses for big math issues. It can get people into space. It can help people survive open heart surgery. Yadda yadda yadda.

But the people at UCLA aren't concerned with that. They love math for math's sake. And now they've discovered a 13-million digit prime number.

Edge of your seat, right?

"We're delighted," said UCLA's Edson Smith, the leader of the effort. "Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds."

Keep going, math guys! Don't let the naysayers stop you!

On the upside, there is a $100,000 prize at stake. I'd like to be eligible for that.

I'd also like to josh the mathematicians a little more about the fruitfulness (or lack thereof) of this enterprise. Really? A big prime number? Is that what you guys have been up to for so long? But then, I'm also getting a degree in words, which I plan to get paid nothing for, so maybe I shouldn't talk. Especially when other writers are crafting articles with headlines such as:

UCLA group discovers humungous prime number

Right. Thanks guys, for working hard on that one.