On Nov 20, 4:49 pm, kstueve <kevin.stu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > One of the reasons making the fastest possible pi(x) available is > important is because of its relationship to the Riemann hypothesis. A > proof of the Riemann hypothesis would not only provide immense insight > into areas of mathematics as diverse as arithmetic and complex > analysis, it would also provide great insight into the relationship > between order and randomness in mathematics, and possibly even shed > light on the role of randomness in the collapse of the wave function > in quantum mechanics. Really? If an alien landed in a flying saucer and told you the answer to this conjecture, what insight would it give you that is different from (say) assuming a particular result, and proceeding from there ? It seems to me you can do all the supposing and figuring the consequences right now, simply by taking two independent paths. As many have done. Also, why do you expect that computing values of pi(x) would provide any further insight into this matter? Do you think that the distribution of primes takes off in a different direction after N=10 trillion? Now it may be that the original poster is an excellent math student and programmer, but it seems that he's taken almost no math courses, judging by the subjects he has NOT studied. We are told nothing about his computer science background either. So maybe it doesn't matter if he pursues a pointless project and learns almost nothing about the use of parallelism in contemporary scientific computing. Studying the Riemann hypothesis may be a fun challenge, or for trying to earn the Clay institute prize, but beyond that, is knowing the truth going to have any effect outside of pure math? Just asking. RJF -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
