Prime Factoring Algorithm

[Visu]

Looking for comments/criticisms before I proceed further. The idea seems (at least to me) too promising to abandon but as of now is still "half baked".I am hoping other eyes and brains can help me see the things that I have missed.

Visu

[R.D. Silverman]

Originally Posted by Visu

Looking for comments/criticisms before I proceed further. The idea seems (at least to me) too promising to abandon but as of now is still "half baked".I am hoping other eyes and brains can help me see the things that I have missed.

Visu

Useless. Even if it works in all cases it is no better than trial division
of Fermat's method.

[Visu]

Trial division? There is no trial division anywhere.

[retina]

Originally Posted by Visu

Trial division? There is no trial division anywhere.

One would imagine that your method was being compared to trial division.

[ewmayer]

Bit late to the party, and have a possibly-very-stupid question, which is orthogonal to the estimated-runtime discussion:

Why do we need a "prime factoring algorithm"?

[wblipp]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Why do we need a "prime factoring algorithm"?

To sell to Bill Gates. From his book "The Road Ahead"

"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers."

[wblipp]

Have you tried your method on the Zimmermann challenges?

Paul Zimmermann's page:

"If you want me to look at your algorithm, please first factor one of the numbers below. These small challenges are hard enough so that naive algorithms will not be able to solve them, and easy enough so that an implementation on a personal computer should be able to solve them (if the corresponding algorithm is really efficient)."

http://www.loria.fr/~zimmerma/records/rsa.html

[Visu]

Originally Posted by wblipp

Have you tried your method on the Zimmermann challenges?

Paul Zimmermann's page:

"If you want me to look at your algorithm, please first factor one of the numbers below. These small challenges are hard enough so that naive algorithms will not be able to solve them, and easy enough so that an implementation on a personal computer should be able to solve them (if the corresponding algorithm is really efficient)."

http://www.loria.fr/~zimmerma/records/rsa.html

Not yet. I am a pre school level programmer and wanted to make sure there were no errors in the mathematics and reasoning before committing the next two years of my life writing the necessary programme.

[Visu]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Bit late to the party, and have a possibly-very-stupid question, which is orthogonal to the estimated-runtime discussion:

Why do we need a "prime factoring algorithm"?

Ha ha. Because I was too lazy to write "An algorithm to factorise semiprimes into their constituent prime numbers or verify that a given number is a prime".

I could have just called it a factoring algorithm though

And seems I'm in good company if Bill Gates is making the same mistake I did in a more public forum. We non mathematicians have a lot to learn.

[Visu]

Originally Posted by retina

One would imagine that your method was being compared to trial division.

I thought for a minute that some requirement for trial division managed to sneak in. I was fairly certain that I left out trial divisions, iterations that loop indefinitely and sievings the usual road bumps in the way of an amateur mathematicians' road to glory. ( I might have divided something by 0 though.)

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Visu

Not yet. I am a pre school level programmer and wanted to make sure there were no errors in the mathematics and reasoning before committing the next two years of my life writing the necessary programme.

My understanding is that Mathematica or other program can be used to perform the need calculations.