Mersenne: Entropy of mersenne calculations.

2001-09-10 Thread Gareth Randall
What is the entropic efficiency of our calculations? Is it possible to say how much work must be performed in order to verify whether a number is prime? If it is, then how efficient are our methods in comparison? For instance, can it be shown that there is theoretically a better method, but

Re: Mersenne: Entropy of mersenne calculations.

2001-09-10 Thread bjb
On 10 Sep 2001, at 14:47, Gareth Randall wrote: What is the entropic efficiency of our calculations? Um. We're not even gaining information in the strict (information theory) sense, since all Mersenne primes existed long before anyone formulated the concept - yet we are certainly raising