Re: prime numbers and African artifact

root (root@ursine.software)
Mon, 17 Jul 1995 01:17:48 GMT

Dave Brown (dbrown@armf18.dow.on.doe.ca) wrote:
: In article <3tukas$28m2@bubba.ucc.okstate.edu>,
: David Ullrich <ullrich@math.okstate.edu> wrote:
: : What's the easy way to show that 254365465431652436514232 is not
: : prime again?

: You use the Unix 'factor' command. If factor can divide it up into
: lots of prime factors, then it's not prime. Let's try it and see:

: READY.
: factor
: 254365465431652436514232
: Ouch!

: READY.

'scuse me, you must have been using a back-dated version of factor (at least
earlier than 1.41.59 beta. The Ouch! message was removed in 2.17.18 alpha).
For the latest version, ftp from ftp.prime.factors.udc.edu (sorry, no web
page yet). A little while ago, I tried >factor.file factor
254365431652436514232, but it seems that all of the replies in this thread
took up so much disk space, there wasn't room for the file. I'd try it
again, but my machine is pretty badly tied up solving a rather general
quintic.

Good luck.

Murray
mgross@amanda.dorsai.org