Chapter 61 Do you understand the rules?
Yuanmingyuan Vocational and Technical College, the mathematics department of one of the four major lunatic asylums.
A short old man with gray hair and glasses walked through the corridor.
"Hello, Academician Zhou!" Several students passing by said hello immediately.
However, Academician Zhou, who was usually very amiable, did not respond this time. He just walked over with a drooped face, as if he was paying no attention to anyone.
"What's wrong with Academician Zhou? He seems to be in a bad mood!"
"It's not just bad, it's very bad! You don't know it yet, today the Mathematics Department of Wudaokou Vocational and Technical College next door to us announced A new achievement!
“What achievement? To make Academician Zhou look so ugly? Is it possible that Goldbach's conjecture has also been solved? "
"It's not that exaggerated. They found the 41st Mersenne prime! ”
“Messenne prime number? Did the math department next door discover the Mersenne primes? Is this the first Mersenne prime number discovered by our Chinese scholars? No wonder Academician Zhou’s face is so gloomy! ”
"Yes, the Mersenne prime numbers are small, and they fill a gap in China! For so many years, our mathematics department has always been the best in China. This time, it was overpowered by the next door. It's hard to lose face! Academician Zhou's heart It must be a panic!”
……
Cambridge University, UK. Great mathematicians such as Newton and Turing were born here, and it is a well-deserved ace institution in the field of mathematics.
Looking at the whole of Europe, probably only Oxford and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich are on the same level as Cambridge.
The only ones in the world that can reach this level in mathematics research are Princeton, MIT and Stanford.
In the parking lot of the University of Cambridge, Professor John Coates of the Department of Mathematics parked his car, but he did not get out of the car immediately. Instead, he held his mobile phone and looked excited.
“What are you talking about? The Chinese discovered the 41st Mersenne prime number? How is this possible! With China’s scientific research level, how could they discover the Mersenne prime number! It must be fake news!
"M24,036,583? It has been verified that it is indeed a Mersenne prime? Who verified it? Is it reliable? Oh, it was verified by the London Mathematical Society! ”
The London Mathematical Society was founded in 1865 and is the oldest mathematical society in the world. Professor John Coates is also a member and plans to run for president. So of course he will not question the London Mathematical Society. The society’s verification results.
“China has always been relatively backward in basic research. I heard that scholars there have not even thoroughly studied things more than ten years ago. How can they find new ones? Mersenne prime! ”
"Found it through GIMPS? That's it! I thought it was China's mathematical research that made a breakthrough, but it turns out that it still relies on the American system! It seems that the Chinese are just lucky!"
Put down the phone, John Coates' expression became relaxed, and he said to himself sourly:
"GIMPS can be used all over the world. Using GIMPS to find new Mersenne prime numbers is like winning a lottery ticket. It depends purely on luck. No skills!”
……
The Electronic Frontier Foundation in the United States is a supporter of the GIMPS project.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was formed by a group of hackers. The original intention of its establishment was that this group of hackers was always under investigation by the FBI, so they set up a foundation and hired lawyers to protect personal freedom on the Internet. in the name of defending hacking.
Later, as the foundation grew bigger and bigger, the dragon-slaying warriors also turned into evil dragons. The Electronic Frontier Foundation not only became an intellectual property protection organization, but also began to crack down on hackers.
Even Facebook’s Zuckerberg was sued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In the end, Zuckerberg donated money to the foundation and the matter was settled.
To put it simply, the union that originally stood up for hackers has turned into charging protection fees from hackers.
The news of the discovery of the 41st Mersenne prime number was naturally learned by the Electronic Frontier Foundation immediately.
In the conference room, President Barlow of the Foundation looked at everyone with a gloomy face:
"Gentlemen, just this morning, I just got the news that the 41st Mersenne prime was finally discovered. The discoverer It is a scholar named Zhang Wei from the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University in China. According to the information published by Tsinghua University, they used our GIMPS system to discover this Mersenne prime number. However, I just checked the server and it is not in our server. This number! I want to know if there is something wrong with our system!"
Someone immediately explained: "President, I must explain here, if the people involved in GIMPS , a suspected new Mersenne prime was discovered, but it was not uploaded to our server and we cannot see it. "
"Why is it not uploaded? "
"President, under normal circumstances, the discoverers will upload it because they do not have the ability to verify the numbers. But some scientific research institutes have access to supercomputers and they have the ability to verify the numbers themselves.
According to me As we all know, Tsinghua University is the best university in China, and the Chinese have also developed supercomputers. They are capable of verifying Mersenne primes by themselves, so please rest assured that it is not a problem with our system.”
Another person next to him said: "China's Internet speed is relatively slow, and China's control over the Internet is relatively strong. I think it may be because of this that they did not transmit the data to the server, but chose to do it themselves. Verification. "
After hearing these explanations, President Barlow's expression finally relaxed a lot. As long as there is no problem with his own system, there is no problem.
At this moment, the secretary knocked on the door and walked in.
"President, we just received an email. The sender of the email is a Chinese. He calls himself Zhang Wei. He is from the Department of Mathematics at Tsingta University in China. He is the person who just discovered the 41st Mersenne prime number."
"Oh? The discoverer of the new Mersenne prime numbers has contacted us! What speech did he say?"
"Mr. Zhang Wei did not make any speech, but he asked us, fifty thousand How will the US dollars be paid? When can it be given to him? "
"Uh..." President Barlow was speechless.
What a great achievement it is to discover new Mersenne primes! Shouldn't I make a speech?
For example, I have loved mathematics since I was a child and determined to become a mathematician. Alan Turing is my idol. I hope to contribute to the development of human mathematics and so on.
How can anyone directly ask when the money will be distributed?
Before taking money, why don’t you thank your leader? Can't you thank the organization?
Do you understand the rules?
……
Zhang Wei did not have an overseas account, so he finally asked Professor Zhuge for help.
Professor Zhuge used Qingdao University’s overseas account to collect the money for Zhang Wei, and then transferred it to Zhang Wei’s account.
According to the exchange rate at that time, fifty thousand US dollars was about four hundred thousand yuan, which was enough for a down payment in the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing.
However, in the eyes of the Qing Dynasty, this mere 400,000 yuan is not a lot of money, so naturally it will not be left with Zhang Wei.
Compared with 400,000, Tsinghua University values academic achievements more. I found that the name Mersenne Prime is much more fragrant than 400,000.
So after only three days, 50,000 US dollars arrived in Zhang Wei's Bank of China account.
“I remember that in the past two years, the RMB has been appreciating, and you will lose money if you hold the U.S. dollar in your hand. When you find an opportunity with a suitable exchange rate, you can exchange it for RMB!”
Zhang Wei left happily. After entering the rental house, he placed the ten raw eggs he just bought on the table, and then poured a large glass of water.
“Brother Devil, give me another Mersenne prime number!”
Thank you all for your monthly votes! John Coates is a real person, and he will appear again in the future. Finally, I wish everyone a happy weekend.
(End of this chapter)