Title text:
Another group of mathematicians is working to put an upper bound on the number, although everyone keeps begging them to stop.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3137/
Title text:
Another group of mathematicians is working to put an upper bound on the number, although everyone keeps begging them to stop.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3137/
Felt like noodling a little with some numbers. I have a nice candidate. 22301. Pretty small, right?
It’s prime.That’s not troubling to most anyone’s sanity. Edit: one should check one’s silly code more carefully before madly pretending to be mad on the Internet. It is not prime. But the intermediate numbers still are.There’s something that can be done to that number four times (but no more) which results in a prime each time and the fourth step results in a 70 digit number that I may have looked at slightly tOo LoNnNg.
Edit 2: Attempt at redemption for the math if not the joke: Start with 5497949 which is prime, and you can do the thing four times and get a prime each time. The last one has 108 digits and, no word of a lie, starts 6969…
Imaginary bonus points for guessing what the heck the operation / something is.b
But 22301 isn’t prime? It’s 29*769.
Well, this is embarrassing. This is what I get for mathing after midnight.
The true number messed you up so much you can’t recall it any more.
Can confirm, it stole my lunch money when I tried to see it, then gaslit me and told me my fiancee did. Truly a cursed number.