[ExI] 2^57885161-1

[Mike Dougherty]

On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/02/05/worlds-largest-prime-number-discovered/
> The number -- 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times, written
> mathematically as 257,885,161-1 -- is the first prime discovered in
> four years.

*wince*  we know what he or she meant, even if he or she did not.

> The first prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and so on.

'and so on' as if the first 5 primes describe a series so self-evident...


Is there any way to estimate the amount of FLOPS that has been
dedicated to finding primes and express this as a percentage of total
FLOPS humanity has managed to calculate in silicon?  Both are big
numbers, but I am too under-informed to know their relative scale.