Comments on: The H&FJ Institute for Unapplied Mathematics

The H&FJ Institute for Unapplied Mathematics

netbros — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:27:28 -0800

Joe Palca, a science correspondent for NPR's Morning Edition, was meditating on the best way to convey the magnitude of the world's largest known prime number, 2^43112609-1. He contacted H&FJ at Typography.com to discuss the implications of typesetting a number with more than twelve million digits. Crunching of numbers and fonts ensued.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:30:52 -0800

My typogeeky heart swoons everytime someone mentions Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Good on 'em!

By: rtha

rtha — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:44:17 -0800

Damn, that's cool.

By: CaptApollo

CaptApollo — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:46:33 -0800

Some have suggested that 13- and 17-year cicadas each follow prime numbered life cycles in order to ensure that their populations compete as little as possible, coexisting only once every 221 years. Wow. That is some swanky evolution right there. Also, I just adore that this entire typographic discussion was for a piece on NPR.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:47:48 -0800

That number is written in invisible UV ink in very small print that wraps around the walls of my living room. Turn on the blacklight and it's a Prime Number Party!

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:57:01 -0800

Also, I just adore that this entire typographic discussion was for a piece on NPR. You're probably not going to connect with many font nerds running a piece like this on Opie and Anthony's Whip 'em Out Wendesdays.

By: djfiander

djfiander — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 08:57:14 -0800

The fact that changing the kerning on the number pair "74" can cause a 150 ft variation in the length of the printed number is just amazing!

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:12:53 -0800

What about typesetting the hexadecimal representation? I'll start off: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF......

By: ob

ob — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:14:14 -0800

Does being fascinated by this make me a geek? OK fine.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:22:11 -0800

This is geekery I can swing to.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:27:07 -0800

the math gets quite a bit easier in fonts with tabular figures, where all of the digits are the same width

Which, of course, is the only way one should ever actually typeset numbers in math or sciences. But, as they say, "but what fun is that?"

By: ElvisJesus

ElvisJesus — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:03:57 -0800

Microsoft Excel can't even calculate any Mersenne prime with an exponent larger than 607. Well, if it confuses Excel, that's some bigass number indeed

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:34:39 -0800

What's the largest prime number that is not a Mersenne Prime?

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:38:26 -0800

largest known non-Mersenne prime

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:44:42 -0800

I found my own answer: 27653 × 2^9167433 + 1 (2,759,677 digits, much smaller than the Mersenne prime).

By: Bokononist

Bokononist — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 10:46:51 -0800

vacapinta: 1FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF...?

By: spamguy

spamguy — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:32:00 -0800

I remember Googling (OK, stalking) one of my computer science professors and discovered he was an avid GIMPS participant. I don't have the stomach to sit on one number for two to three weeks, but I do participate in PrimeGrid, which is the next best thing. This prime number is my baby.

By: jimmythefish

jimmythefish — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:56:58 -0800

'bagatelle' is officially my word of the day.

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:48:35 -0800

And how long would it take the Prime Number Shitting Bear to get to this number?

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:28:43 -0800

20 miles, yeah, sure, but what's that in pica?

By: scrump

scrump — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:52:22 -0800

20 miles, yeah, sure, but what's that in pica?

According to Google, 7,603,200. In postscript.

By: reenum

reenum — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:58:36 -0800

So, I'm on PrimeGrid too. How often do they find a new prime number?