My understanding is that most (all?) newly-discovered large prime numbers are found via computer programs. I tried reading upon the methodology to find those numbers but I got lost in the mathematical formulas. My guess is it’s not as simple as “find an odd number then start dividing it by all numbers that are approximately 50% of that number or less, and send an alert when you run the whole series and always get remainders.” I mean…that would work but it seems like the slowest and least efficient way to find primes. Is here some way of explaining this that doesn’t rely on me understanding a formula?
In: Mathematics
There’s no formula that will just take you straight to a prime number, it has to be found, kinda like what you’re saying. There are formulas that can predict where a prime might be, or give you a smaller amount of numbers to check. But those just help find a prime, not actually give it to you.
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