Wang Hao put down the phone and suddenly became a little frustrated. He originally wanted to find a few more Mersenne primes and make a million dollars in one go, but...
GIMPS is a poor family?
What else are we looking for Mersenne primes? What’s the point?
Zhang Zhiqiang couldn't help but ask, "There is no bonus... should we continue?"
"Of course continue!"
I don't know when Chen Qinghua came over. He pointed to the handwritten sign at the door and said seriously, "Look, what is the name of this laboratory? Mason Mathematical Science Laboratory?"
"Are we looking for Mersenne numbers to get bonuses? No, we are doing it for scientific research and mathematical research!"
"As long as the server can still be used and the computer can still hold up, we must continue testing!"
"..."
"..."
Wang Hao and Zhang Zhiqiang looked at each other and suddenly realized that Luan Haiping had a reason to hate Chen Qinghua.
This old man really has no bottom line.
The so-called 'Mason Mathematical Science Laboratory' was completely made up, but he could actually say it shamelessly and express his admiration for mathematical research in a serious manner?
In fact, isn't it just a show of preparing to spend money to expand the laboratory?
All right.
After all, it is for the development of the laboratory. It is not a complete deception. At least the purpose is very good.
Test, continue.
Wang Hao didn't care much about the test results. GIMPS couldn't pay enough bonuses, so it didn't matter whether it could detect Mersenne primes.
Even though I knew in my heart that GIMPS had no money, I still felt like I was losing a million dollars.
In this research content, without the attraction of bonuses, it is really meaningless to continue to verify other Mersenne numbers.
There is only one number that makes sense right now, a number calculated through simple verification——
7XXXXXXXX.
This is a nine-digit number.
The two functions he created have intersection lines, and as long as the number on the intersection line is a prime number, the corresponding Mersenne number must be a Mersenne prime number.
From this, you can use the program to easily calculate a few numbers.
Wang Hao calculated a total of seven numbers. Later, due to the influence of exponential complexity, the calculation will become very complicated.
Among the Mersenne primes corresponding to the seven exponents, the first six have been verified, leaving only the largest one that has not been verified.
The exponent of this number is a nine-digit number starting with "seven", and GIMPS's Mersenne number calculation has not yet reached the nine-digit level.
Calculation and primality testing of the nine-digit numbers starting with 'seven' and the corresponding Mersenne numbers will take more than 500 hours with the hardware capabilities of the computer laboratory, and there may even be problems such as insufficient storage space for numbers.
, if there is a slight error in the calculation midway, all the efforts will be in vain.
The reason why this number is valuable is that the Mersenne prime number it corresponds to must be a billion-digit number.
The EFF Company once offered a reward for very large prime numbers, setting up a $50,000 reward for the first person to discover a prime number with more than one million digits, and a $100,000 reward for the first person to discover a prime number with more than 10 million digits.
At the same time, US$150,000 was set up to reward those who discover prime numbers with more than 100 million digits.
Of course.
To detect and verify the primality of billion-digit numbers, the calculation itself will have huge costs, but at the same time, the first person or institution to discover a billion-digit prime number will also win the honor of being recorded in the history of mathematics.
The US$150,000 is just a bonus. The real attraction is the honor of discovering the largest prime number.
"This number may be worth more than a lottery ticket that won 5 million." Wang Hao has a bottom line for valuation.
With some expectations, he left the computer laboratory with Chen Qinghua and went to the large classroom in the teaching building, preparing to be interviewed by reporters.
Reporters can't wait for a long time.
Among the dozens of journalists who came, some even waited for two days just to interview Wang Hao. They had been waiting for all the prime numbers to be verified, and public opinion seemed to have no momentum to stop, so they had to keep waiting.
Interviewed.
Some reporters are also very dissatisfied. They feel that Wang Hao is trying to be a big name, but there is no good way to do this. When they came, the computer laboratory made it clear that Wang Hao would not make it public until the results of the Mersenne number test came out.
Be interviewed.
Because of this, the reporters are even more looking forward to it. They all know that Wang Hao will definitely talk about the 'results' issue that the public is most concerned about.
There were a lot of reporters coming, so the interview was arranged in a large classroom.
Wang Hao sat in the center of the podium and looked at the reporters sitting there. He felt as if he was giving a lecture to students. There were various sound equipment hanging on the podium and cameras set up on both sides.
, it feels like a celebrity attending a press conference.
Zhang Zhiqiang sat next to him like an assistant. He was supporting Wang Hao, and by the way, he showed up on behalf of the computer laboratory.
The news interview officially begins.
A reporter on the right first asked, "Professor Wang Hao, the Mersenne Number Science Laboratory has found five Mersenne primes in a row. What many people are concerned about is, have you found the law of Mersenne primes? Can you combine them?"
Find all the Mersenne primes?”
Wang Hao shook his head and said, "I did find some laws of Mersenne primes, but my research did not cover all Mersenne primes, so it is incomplete from a mathematical point of view."
The next reporter asked directly, "Professor Wang Hao, can you introduce us to your results?"
"sure."
Wang Haoren explained seriously, "Based on the research on Mersenne prime numbers, I created two functions to cover a part of the Mersenne prime numbers, with a ratio of about two-thirds."
"The two functions are like this."
Wang Hao found a sense of lecturing. He picked up the chalk, turned to the blackboard and drew a three-dimensional coordinate and a function image. However, due to his limited drawing skills, the function image was a bit complicated, so he revised it many times.
Still not satisfied, I could only shake my head in the end and drew another simpler function graph.
"These are the two functions I created, one is a calculation function and the other is a decision function."
"We can see that there are many areas inside the decision function."
"The closer the coordinate points in these areas are to the edge, I think the stronger the primality of the corresponding Mersenne number will be. There is also a possibility that it itself is a Mersenne prime number."
"As long as the coordinate point at the edge of the determination corresponds to a Mersenne number, it will definitely be a Mersenne prime number."
Wang Hao turned around and said seriously, "I mentioned the word prime just now. In numbers, a prime number is a prime number, and a non-prime number is a non-prime number. But in my research, the definition of prime is that it can be decomposed
The fewer factors, the higher the prime..."
"You can understand it this way. For example, the prime property of 9 is stronger than that of 12, because the factors of 9 are only 3, while the factors of 12 are 3 and 2."
"Bala bala~~~"
Wang Hao entered the teaching mode and began to talk about his research seriously. He was not explaining the details of the research, but just giving an introduction to everyone.
The row of professors standing nearby listened with great interest and felt that they all understood it.
The reporters in the middle were all stunned. Even among their middle school students, even those with higher academic qualifications only went to better universities. They all graduated in media or journalism, or they must have majored in liberal arts, even if a few of them were engineering graduates.
, when it comes to complex mathematics, I can only throw up my hands and surrender.
When Wang Hao started talking, they couldn't listen anymore. They just wanted to record it with a camera and a voice recorder, and then slowly sort it out and study it when they got back, or send it all directly to the report.
Some people also felt bitter in their hearts, "I'm obviously here for an interview, so why did I listen to the math class? And the people next to me were listening so seriously..."
"If I am seen as being completely incomprehensible, will I be despised as having a low cultural level?"
"You must pretend to understand!"
Many reporters think so.
A very strange situation suddenly occurred in the classroom. It was obviously a news interview activity, but it seemed to have turned into a mathematics classroom. Everyone in the audience listened attentively and nodded frequently.
This atmosphere also gives Wang Hao, as a teacher, a sense of accomplishment.
have a look!
Who can make a journalist understand the mathematical content he is talking about?
He spoke more energetically.
This 'class' lasted for about twenty minutes, until a reporter couldn't bear it anymore and took advantage of a gap to interrupt to ask questions, and Wang Hao finally ended his 'teaching'.
It’s a pity that I haven’t finished talking yet!
Many reporters who listened carefully felt lethargic, but the professional job of interviewing still taught them how to do it.
When the interview continued normally, the reporters were a little scared. When they noticed that Wang Hao had a tendency to explain mathematics, they quickly shouted, "I have no problem."
Next.
Next one...
Not all media reporters are friendly. There is a reporter from Newsweek named Hou Lijun, who is best at creating hot spots of public opinion by "digging traps" and "finding problems."
This was Hou Lijun's first time to interview scholars and scientific research results, but he also thought about how to ask questions and immediately said when he got the chance to speak, "Professor Wang Hao, is the purpose of your research just to find Mersenne primes?"
The word "only" makes the question sound a little weird.
Wang Hao frowned slightly, but still said, "To be precise, the initial research on this was just an application of the effective and irrelevant carry algorithm. It was an algorithm research of mine."
"A friend named Patrick Roche suggested that the algorithm could be applied to find Mersenne prime numbers. I thought his idea was very good, so I studied it carefully."
Hou Lijun continued to ask, "If the purpose of your research is just to find Mersenne prime numbers, then what is the point? We are not mathematicians, but we also know that Mersenne prime numbers are all very large numbers, millions of digits, thousands of
Ten thousand people are completely divorced from reality."
Many reporters recognized Hou Lijun and privately said that he was good at creating traps and guiding public opinion. At the same time, they also wanted to see how Wang Hao would answer.
"has no meaning?"
Wang Hao laughed instead, "Journalist friend, your question is really funny. I feel that I am not qualified to answer this question, because you are not only questioning my research, but also questioning GIMPS and the whole world.
The work of many mathematicians even calls into question the very existence of mathematics as a discipline."
Wang Haodao, "When our generation was in primary school, there was a story about Mr. Chen Jingrun in the textbooks. His most important achievement was to advance the proof of Goldbach's conjecture, which is to prove '1+2'."
"Your question is also applicable. Even if Goldbach's conjecture is proved, what is the practical significance of proving '1+1'?"
"You are not just questioning my research, you are standing on the opposite side of the development of mathematics and science and technology!"
"Papa~~"
The reporters suddenly burst into cheers and applause.
Wang Hao's few answers were very concise, and he did not directly respond to the questions, but the examples he gave were very convincing.
What is the practical significance of searching for Mersenne prime numbers?
What is the practical significance of proving Goldbach's conjecture?
What is the practical significance of proving various mathematical conjectures?
Most of the research on advanced mathematics is meaningless when connected with reality, but many of the world's top high-IQ geniuses are engaged in the research of basic mathematics, because the development of mathematical foundations is the foundation of scientific development.
Science & Technology.
Science is the support for technological development, and mathematical theory is the support for scientific development. Scientific research is more difficult than technical research, and mathematical theory research is the most difficult.
Because of this, scholars engaged in mathematical theoretical research will stand at the top of the academic pyramid.
…
The press conference ends.
The reporters went back to write articles one after another, and the campus finally became quieter.
Hou Lijun was also one of the people who wrote the article. After he went back and looked at the interview records, he felt very unhappy because he had lost face during the interview.
When he asked the question, he just wanted to ask the other party to answer and dig a "small hole" for a small entertainment report. In the end, the other party directly said that he was on the opposite side of science, and he won the support and applause of many fellow journalists.
.
The more Hou Lijun thought about it, the more reluctant he became. It would have been fine if he had been a successful scholar, but the other party was just a young man. Wouldn't it be great to have some achievements?
In terms of mathematical research, the other party is indeed blameless, but apart from the research factors, other aspects are not necessarily the same.
Hou Lijun immediately checked Wang Hao's information, and with just a little research he could find out a piece of news - the Donggang Materials Laboratory incident.
When it comes to public opinion, this incident only aroused some discussion and did not reach a very hot level. However, as long as you analyze it carefully and carefully, you can find something to blame.
As a reporter who is good at capturing public opinion hot spots and writing news content, Hou Lijun has a very high "professional standard" and immediately thought of which direction to go in to write.
At that time, Donggang's laboratory lost more than 10 million!
If it were placed in the work of ordinary people, and a personal mistake caused tens of millions of losses to the company, would it be over just by being fired?
Of course not, the parties concerned may still be held legally responsible!
However, Donggang University only dismissed Wang Hao without any other punishment. Wang Hao also just "jumped a new job" and left Donggang University to go to Xihai University to continue teaching and scientific research, which had no personal impact at all.
Of course.
Hou Lijun also knows that there will definitely be an impact. From a teaching position within the system to a temporary labor contract, it can be said that there is an essential difference, but most people will not think about it that deeply.
Think about it.
A lecturer at Donggang University was fired and became a lecturer at Xihai University. What is the difference?
Just job hopping.
On the other hand, if an ordinary person brings heavy losses to the company, even if he is just fired, it will definitely be difficult for him to find another job in the same industry.
This is the key point of the report. While Wang Hao continues to find hot spots about Mersenne prime numbers, he uses his personal past to create controversy and heated discussions.
As for the news network, what the public will think or comment on this matter has nothing to do with Hou Lijun. He just stated the matter from a "neutral" perspective.
Do normal news reporting, clearly explain what happened, and don’t make any subjective comments.
Isn’t that what the news media should be like?
…
at the same time.
Many faculty and staff of Donggang University are talking about Wang Hao. One reason is that Wang Hao is a recent hot topic. It is extremely rare for academic achievements to be on hot searches. Wang Hao can be discussed across fields, and his achievements are indeed very significant.
Secondly, Wang Hao carries the label of ‘Donggang University’.
Although he is a professor at Xihai University, he studied at Donggang University for his undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies. He can be regarded as a pure "Donggang native". The faculty and staff of Donggang have a natural affinity for him.
Of course, there are also people who are disgusted with the name Wang Hao.
Alloy materials laboratory.
Ma Wenjun came to Zhou Xiaolong's office, "Professor Zhou, have you summarized the data from the experiments in the past two days?"
"It was made by my students and submitted. I'll look for it." Zhou Xiaolong replied, rummaged through the documents for a long time, found a copy, and handed it to Ma Wenjun.
He then said, "What's the use of analyzing it? It can't be done anyway."
Ma Wenjun frowned slightly and said, "Professor Zhou, pay attention to your words. We are working on the project normally. Even if we cannot produce results, the data in the research process is still important."
"Yes Yes."
Zhou Xiaolong said "yes" two times in a row without caring, then shook his head and said, "Old Ma, I feel that you and Teacher Chen are becoming more and more similar. It's a pity that you are a data person, not a material person."
As he said this, he closed the file page and paid attention to the browser news page. There was an article on it, "Wang Hao's research covers two-thirds of Mersenne primes." He immediately frowned, "In recent days, all the news has been This guy surnamed Wang is obviously a freshly graduated doctor..."
Ma Wenjun also darkened his face with worry. After the Zhucheng Computer Conference, he knew that he could not suppress Wang Hao at all, and he did not have the qualifications to suppress him.
If it is in the field of materials research and development, he can overwhelm the other party and even if he wants to apply for a small project, he will not get funding approval.
However, the other party is engaged in mathematical research and does not even need funding at all. What can he do?
Ma Wenjun and Zhou Xiaolong watched the news together, and they became more and more worried. They didn't know whether they were comforting themselves or Zhou Xiaolong, "Don't worry, the matter has been closed and there is nothing to be found."
"The past is in the past. No matter how famous he becomes or becomes an academician, what will happen?"
"Now the media has not reported on it. After he has more achievements and becomes more famous, there will be less media to dig into the past. National scientific research must have a positive image, right?"
"Don't worry anymore, don't worry anymore..."
Ma Wenjun muttered and walked out, then looked back at the door with a hint of disdain in his eyes, Zhou Xiaolong?
What an idiot!
If Zhou Xiaolong was not Chen Jianlin’s student, how could the Alloy Materials Laboratory have a place for him?
Now Ma Wenjun no longer wants to continue. He just wants to finish the work at hand and quickly complete the project at hand, so he finds a reason to leave Donggang University and leave the country.
The premise is that you make enough money.
Only if you have money can you go abroad to be cool!