My Two Cents

They say that one is the loneliest number, but some mathematicians at UCLA may have discovered a even lonelier number: a new prime number. For those of you who have forgotten your grade school math, a prime number is one that can only be divided by itself and one. It's like taking your sister to the prom.

The new prime number is thirteen million digits long. It's kind of sad when you think about it. Imagine having 13 million digits and no other number being interested in you. You'd think maybe another prime number like 17 or 53 would take a chance. After all, 53 is not that hot of a number. It could show a little love to a 13 million digit number...Just for a little while. I almost feel sorry for it. That is, if I could actually feel sorry for a number.

The folks at UCLA used 75 computers to come up with and verify the number. I'll bet they didn't really need all those computers. They just needed their monitors so they could display the number.

I think it's great that they discovered a new prime number. It's like finding a left-handed relief pitcher that can get people out in the ninth inning. Oops, I guess I'm a little bitter about the baseball season.

Not everyone is as excited about the new prime number as I am. In fact, some people believe that the mathematicians at UCLA were wasting their time searching for the number. But don’t forget, there was a cash reward for discovering the prime number. An organization offered 100,000 dollars for anyone who discovered a prime number with more than ten million digits. I think they would have found the number a lot sooner if they had offered a dollar for every digit in the number. Heck, maybe I would have started looking… at nights and on the weekends.

What I like is when my age is a prime number. That way, no matter how I'm feeling, I'm always in my prime.

I'm Mike Downey. Have a good week.