A memory I’d like to share. On 13 Aug 2007, 1:42:08 UTC, PrimeGrid’s Woodall Prime Search found the 32nd and largest known to date (712818 digits long) Woodall prime:
2367906*22367906-1
Isn’t it amazing? I came across it yesterday by a chance, and recognized it should be a number of a big importance indeed. This number really hit me, I still can’t get it out of my mind, and that’s why I publish this post. If you wonder what is Woodall prime anyway, as I did, you can check a link here. I didn’t really understood it’s practical use, but was hooked by this numbers beauty. 712818 digits of this number and the value their represent are beyond my imagination, as a vast Universe, and yet so compact … like Einstein’s E=mc2, it’s simple and powerful.
This number, the last of 32 in total being discovered, comes under a name of gigantic twin prime, reminding me a name of a monster character from a trash sci fi movie, or a new discovered underwater species… A giant octopus took over my mind, and invaded it by numbers. Another detail that draw more attention was the precise, up to second timing of the discovery ( Aug 2007, 1:42:08 UTC). I haven’t seen anything like that before. Not in sports, in science for sure. It looked like from that moment on the world will never be the same.
Thinking about I copied and pasted it onto a blank page, and looked at it for a while mesmerized. I remember it by heart now, without taking any efforts to remember it.
On the contrary, I can’t remember my mobile number though it has 9 digits only and I have it for over a year… probably it’s not that important anyway.
Boris Kislitsin
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