Maths and Maths

[S485122]

I have a few suggestions concerning the hierarchy of the sub fora.

The Maths sub forum is in the GIMPS sub forum... So it should (?) only contain Maths related to the GIMPS search. Other mathematical threads should be in another sub forum. Other stuff / Maths for instance. Of course such a change, would imply a lot of work ; moving threads from one forum to another...

The "Soap Box" and Hobbies sub fora could be placed under "Fun Stuff", this would be easier to do : just change the parent forum for each. Just more logical.

Of course, if I am alone in preffering such an organisation, just ignore this post.

[Mini-Geek]

I think it'd make more sense to move the entire Math forum to Fun/Extra/Other Stuff (one of the three) than to try to split it into "GIMPS" and "non-GIMPS" sections.

[CRGreathouse]

The math forum barely gets any posts as it is; there's no need to split it.

[10metreh]

I think the Math forum should be moved out of the GIMPS superforum, since most of the stuff posted there is not GIMPS-related. I think it should be moved to Extra Stuff. This would also reduce the number of non-crank threads that get posted in Misc. Math.

Also, I (among others) think LMH and OBD should be moved to GIMPS. They are not factoring projects in that they don't try to completely factor numbers.

And then there's the forum ordering. It appears that the forums used to be listed by number of posts, but this seems to have gone wrong in the Factoring Projects superforum.

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by 10metreh

And then there's the forum ordering. It appears that the forums used to be listed by number of posts, but this seems to have gone wrong in the Factoring Projects superforum.

They aren't sorted by # of posts; they're shown in a static order defined in the Admin CP. (A few months ago I helped to set up a vBulletin forum for the No Prime Left Behind project, and when I added the various subforums I needed to specify the specific order. As far as I know, there's no way to have them sorted dynamically, so if any of the forums used to be like that here, then it was a coincidence.)

[philmoore]

There is certainly some stuff in the Math forum which is GIMPS related, but the majority of it is tangentially related at best, often about other number theory topics. I don't see any need to split it, but I can see moving it to another subforum. I would suggest "FUN STUFF" rather than "EXTRA STUFF", for two reasons: greater visibility, and as a math teacher, I want to brainwash people into thinking that math is actually fun! I think that if it were in the "EXTRA STUFF" area, newcomers might be confused about the difference between "Math" and "Miscellaneous Math Threads", not that some might not be confused anyway.

I did not vote in the poll, because I saw it as a flawed poll in the way it was set up. The question of splitting up the Math forum is independent of whether it should be moved out of GIMPS.

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by S485122

The Maths sub forum is in the GIMPS sub forum... So it should (?) only contain Maths related to the GIMPS search.

But where, exactly, is the line between GIMPS-math and nonGIMPS-math?

Shall we restrict the posts about prime numbers in GIMPS-math to be about only Mersenne primes, with all posts about any other type of prime banished to the nonGIMPS-math?

/* begin lower-sincerity mode */

Okay. Now tell me in which subforum I can, or cannot, mention the power-of-2 exponent of M41 (it's not a Mersenne prime, is it?) and, indeed, how I am to refer to the forty-first Mersenne prime without mentioning the non-Mersenne prime 41 in either cardinal or ordinal form? :-)

Oh, all right -- it's kosher to mention non-Mersenne primes for the purpose of identifying Mersenne primes

/* end lower-sincerity mode */

The "Soap Box" and Hobbies sub fora could be placed under "Fun Stuff"

I don't think it's much fun for some targets of my comments in "Soap Box".

So I favor leaving the structure as-is in regard to Math and Soap Box. (And I voted for no-change accordingly).

- - -

As for LMH and OBD being moved to the GIMPS section because they don't try to completely factor numbers: I agree. Also, their work is concerned exclusively with determining whether Mersenne numbers (not others) have a factor, so they do fit in the Mersenne-only category (as much as anything else does, that is -- my lower-sincerity-mode argument above, and my vote, notwithstanding).

[Mini-Geek]

Originally Posted by cheesehead

/* begin lower-sincerity mode */

Okay. Now tell me in which subforum I can, or cannot, mention the power-of-2 exponent of M41 (it's not a Mersenne prime, is it?) and, indeed, how I am to refer to the forty-first Mersenne prime without mentioning the non-Mersenne prime 41 in either cardinal or ordinal form? :-)

Well, obviously: The only Mersenne number or Mersenne prime you may refer to is 2, since no numbers in the sequence M2, MM2, (M7) MMM2, (M127) ... are known to be composite. (or are they? any prelim done on MMM127 yet?)
/* end lower-sincerity mode */
Clearly, math directly related to Mersenne numbers and the search for Mersenne primes could go in the "GIMPS Math" forum, if there were such a forum. I think there would be a high number of edge-cases, though, where it's not clear whether it should go in GIMPS Math or General Math.

Hm...would it be possible to prove that MM127 is composite by showing that MMM127 has a factor not of the form 2kp+1=q=±1 mod 8? If possible, feasible? If feasible, has anyone attempted this for MMM127?
I'm thinking it's not feasible, since any factor q of MM127 would result in a factor of 2^q-1 for MMM127. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

[davieddy]

How about a forum with a sign over the door saying

LET NONE IGNORANT OF THE WRATH OF SILVERMAN ENTER HERE

Pythagoras

[xilman]

Originally Posted by davieddy

How about a forum with a sign over the door saying

LET NONE IGNORANT OF THE WRATH OF SILVERMAN ENTER HERE

Pythagoras

Seconded!

Paul

[flouran]

Seems like a Brit created this poll. Paul?

I should add that the "It is to much work" category should be changed to:
It is too much work

Hopefully it won't be too much work to make a change to that minor mistake