A big number that shrinks down to about three

I remember this from a book. The puzzle is: The sum of the factors of 360 is 1170. What is the sum of the reciprocals of the factors of 360? At first glance, it might seem impossible to solve, but when you look at it deeper, it's easy. Let's do the classic: 1/1 + 1/2 … Continue reading A big number that shrinks down to about three

RSA Factoring Challenge

The RSA Factoring Challenge is a set of factorisation challenges that involve numbers with hundreds of digits. The highest one cracked was RSA-250, which was 250 digits long, 829 bits, and was factored in February 2020 by Fabrice Boudot, Pierrick Gaudry, Aurore Guillevic, Nadia Heninger, Emmanuel Thomé, and Paul Zimmermann (what's with the cool names?). … Continue reading RSA Factoring Challenge

Transcendental numbers!

What are those?!?! Well, here's your answer!ME, THE AUTHOR Transcendental numbers are numbers that you can't do anything to it to get an integer. Besides power of 0, divide by itself, blah blah, blah. More formal: In mathematics, a transcendental number is a real number or complex number that is not an algebraic number—that is, not a root (i.e., solution) of a nonzero polynomial … Continue reading Transcendental numbers!