Why do we need to know about prime numbers with millions of digits?

[rangerrebew]

Why do we need to know about prime numbers with millions of digits?
January 12, 2018 by Ittay Weiss, The Conversation
 
Prime numbers are more than just numbers that can only be divided by themselves and one. They are a mathematical mystery, the secrets of which mathematicians have been trying to uncover ever since Euclid proved that they have no end.

An ongoing project – the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search – which aims to discover more and more primes of a particularly rare kind, has recently resulted in the discovery of the largest prime number known to date. Stretching to 23,249,425 digits, it is so large that it would easily fill 9,000 book pages. By comparison, the number of atoms in the entire observable universe is estimated to have no more than 100 digits.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-01-prime-millions-digits.html#jCp

[jmyrlefuller]

So, if I get this straight, it boils down to "yeah, they're useless, but we just like math."

[Polly Ticks]

[Oceander]

very large primes are used in encryption.

[The_Reader_David]

very large primes are used in encryption.

Yes, and these would be dandy for that purpose, too, if you have a computer that can multiply numbers that take a few megabytes to store in a reasonable amount of time.

[Oceander]

Yes, and these would be dandy for that purpose, too, if you have a computer that can multiply numbers that take a few megabytes to store in a reasonable amount of time.

Give it time. 

[jmyrlefuller]

very large primes are used in encryption.

The article mentioned that, but then noted that numbers this big are even too big for that. Besides, with that few options with primes that huge, it would be a very easy process of elimination.

[Oceander]

The article mentioned that, but then noted that numbers this big are even too big for that. Besides, with that few options with primes that huge, it would be a very easy process of elimination.