How a mathematician left a prime number gift for his college
Discover the construction of the Trinity Hall Prime. This video explores how Professor McKee engineered a specific prime number with a hidden pattern, using a clever method to ensure its primality was easily verifiable.
The Trinity Hall Prime was created as a mathematical gift for a departing mathematician. To construct it, Professor McKee fixed most of the digits to establish a specific pattern across the top two-thirds of the number. To ensure the number could be easily checked for primality, the bottom third was designed so that p-1 contained a large, known composite factor, F.
The creation process involved looping through a small number of specific digits until a prime number was identified. This method allowed for the creation of a prime with a highly controlled structure.
Source: The Trinity Hall Prime - Numberphile
