Adam Spencer: Why I fell in love with monster prime numbers

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They're millions of digits long, and it takes an army of mathematicians and machines to hunt them down -- what's not to love about monster primes? Adam Spencer, comedian and lifelong math geek, shares his passion for these odd numbers, and for the mysterious magic of math.
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13 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 325

@jeremyharris7811 9 лет назад

Well done Spence, I've never been excited about maths until now. Not a word wasted, and delivered with precision and passion.

@wozhendeaa 6 лет назад

Jeremy Harris it a word wasted? That’s a bit untrue. Just tell me the prime numbers I don’t care about your god damn childhood

@himself99 6 лет назад

New one is here: 2^77,232,917 -1 Jan 5, 2018 A new year gift ✨✨

@azerefendizade6017 3 года назад

2^82,589,933 - 1

@TilekMamutov 10 лет назад

This is one of the funniest TED talks! :)

@nanpanman1 10 лет назад

Good thing we've got PrimeCoin now :) primecoin.org/static/primecoin-paper.pdf

@mysteriesinmind 4 года назад

I agree 100 percent. Sitting alone in my living room just now watching this, I literally laughed out loud more than once.

@oscarmiranda9532 6 лет назад

I watch this talk every time I'm down on math. Is really inspirational.

@devilpizza123 9 лет назад

This guy is an amazing speaker.

@ninadaap 10 лет назад

He is indeed a great story teller. Had me hooked!

@raymondlai5 9 лет назад

Hi TED =), Thank you for taking the time and effort to both upload and share this exciting video with the youtube family. I hope you have a nice day! =).

@coolblkid2k 9 лет назад

Why is everyone being so mean to this man? He is a mathethematical COMEDIAN. Not all 'math guys' have to carry on like pretentious douches to be interesting. And, it's not like he's bragging about how great he is. He spends time serving his audience and keeping them engaged in a way most couldnt. He's part of the team. You guys should be treating him like family. People can be both smart and funny believe it or not. *leaves thread closing the door*

@TheFireflyGrave 9 лет назад

I agree with you. But keep in mind that sometimes these videos have vocal minorities that skew these perceptions. 2900+ likes and 64 dislikes; most viewers like him.

@bringingtherukas7473 9 лет назад

it probably has more to do with his radio show than anything said in this talk.

@TboneI989 8 лет назад

The video is 3k to 71. I think hardly anybody are disagreeing with him. Stop sensationalizing,

@coolblkid2k 8 лет назад

...I posted that ONE YEAR AGO lol.... someone needs to get a life.

@RadioheadCentral 9 лет назад

Fantastic. I can't grasp the maths (god knows I wish I could) but I get Spencer's impassioned exuberance re: the magic of Descartes' posit that the essence of humanity is in our thinking. Plus he's freakin' hilarious.

@srimansrini 11 лет назад

His wonderful talk is one of the best in this lot. How the seemingly unimportant prime number discovery is very much necessary to our existence. A very inspiring and exceptional explanation. Must watch.

@MartinTodd 11 лет назад

Prime example of a great Ted talk

@dennispiliptchak1941 6 лет назад

I wonder what his reaction was when the most recent largest prime was discovered.

@Metalhammer1993 6 лет назад

Man that guy is a great speaker. Had a blast with this guy.

@astroboyhasguns 11 лет назад

Possibly the best ted talk I have ever seen. Brilliant.

@SlimThrull 11 лет назад

Excellent talk. Easy to understand and funny to boot. Ted needs to have this guy back often.

@davidpye3142 10 лет назад

Essential viewing for all young students... thanks for sharing...

@TimmacTR 10 лет назад

What a great talk...so intelligent, witty and humble at the same time..

@nickjohnson410 2 года назад

This a prime example of a good TED Talk

@f4ithless 11 лет назад

You're an absolute legend Adam! Nice speech!

@UseAfterFreee 6 лет назад

January 2018 he can update that slide

@blackbirdhum 8 лет назад

Spence you legend. The first person to broadcast us on national radio too!!

@rprasannakumar 11 лет назад

After a long time a TED Talk that made me feel cool !!

@tonniebaumeister 2 года назад

I agree in his fascination. The Ulam-spiral and the Mandelbrot-set. They were there already before the Big Bang. Before time, material and movement. And it is between randomize and 100% perfection. Chaos in the most elementary machine-code. That should inspire every one! Is there a Creator?

@colinmaharaj 3 года назад

I wrote a rabin miller primality test some years ago in C. Good stuff. Part of this was to write my own big number math library.

@Shock777423 11 лет назад

Agreed! Highly informative and entertaining!! More talks like this please.

@torqueconstructionnoiselew3376 8 лет назад

2,147,483,647 is my favorite!

@vangelicest4183 6 лет назад

İbrahim Erçetin I tried your found number to test MY algorithm and found this: 214748364712312312341234

@BennyEternET 10 лет назад

Who am I kidding when I say almost ?

@kaichen8927 10 лет назад

This guy spoke at this uni science thing i went to in the holidays for year 9 and 10 students Legit the same speech

@camitava 10 лет назад

I came back to TED after a month to realise I haven't missed much. TED is producing so much videos is because the 'hand-thrusting' salesman-speakers have turnished this world as well - just like discovery and national geographic - TED's shows has also become a commonplace events - 'show for the sake of it'!!!

@oscarmiranda9532 6 лет назад

I love this talk, I always watch it when I'm stuck on a problem

@KaewSaBa 6 лет назад

One of the best TED Talk ever!!

@shuidongliu97 7 лет назад

If only I was shown thi TED in my school days. Really gets you excited about Math!

@yousefflahoud 11 лет назад

Fantastic presentation. I just LOVED his passion.

@MelissalaTi 11 лет назад

If I'm correct, I think it helps to think of numbers as groupings of items rather than getting hung up on how they're written. You can write 13 as "13," or as "1101" (binary), or "21" (base-6), and you will still count the same quantity. And the quantity is still either prime or not prime - that is, it can be easily divided into smaller groupings, or it can't - regardless of the base.

@TheCaptCol 11 лет назад

SpencDawg....making mathematics epic. Could you do a talk about Pi? Cheers mate

@joezephyr 10 месяцев назад

Adam, there are now some great cafes near to Boronia Park primary school.

@jcbrailsford 11 лет назад

Well done, sir. That one is definitely worth listening to more than once.

@194Anonymous 11 лет назад

this guy would make a great teacher

@mr_cysio 11 лет назад

I have no idea why, but I'm really thrilled by this speech. Amazing.

@alfredomoreno8516 8 лет назад

wow this was so inspiring

@bb3xhrhj 11 лет назад

First TED talk to ever give me chills.. and i don't even like math.

@UselessDuckCompany 11 лет назад

How much did they pay the speaker, and how much are tickets to attend?

@216trixie 11 лет назад

I wish he'd said one word about why. Why find prime numbers? This reminds me so much of high school math.

@MelissalaTi 11 лет назад

I can't speak to the usefulness of finding primes, but I will suggest that, in theory, it shouldn't matter what base you use to find said numbers, since a prime number is determined strictly by whether it can be equally divided into smaller whole numbers. Obviously it's useful to use base-10, because everyone does, but whether you count a pair of apples as 2 (base-10) or 10 (binary), the resulting couple of apples can still only be divided into "two" piles of one, or one pile of "two"

@JuneJupiter 11 лет назад

Fabulous enthusiasm, and an interesting topic!

@LanRous 11 лет назад

Awesome talk

@ColeMarkusen 11 лет назад

That was one of the best TED talks I've seen in a long time. Not only do I want more like it, I want more talks from him specifically.

@Monkeyabroad 11 лет назад

I used to hate numbers, but now... No. No I still hate them. Great speech though.

@stefjoseph-kruyswijk6892 5 лет назад

Nice to see someone else (much more) exited about prime numbers. Can't imagine how exited Adam must have been when the latest prime number was found

@omegrown420 11 лет назад

Adam Spencer throwing it down!

@zizzlestick42 11 лет назад

this talk was even better than I expected

@ivovazov 11 лет назад

Thanks, that is a very good point..!

@MattHutsons 10 лет назад

The best TED I've ever seen!

@OMKO 11 лет назад

Without prime numbers, we wouldn't be able to browse the internet safely and securely ! Awesome TED talk

@karthikj2240 6 лет назад

This is hands down one of the best Ted talks I've ever seen. But looking at the number of views it has garnered when compared to useless ted talks by dumb celebrities, I can't help but wonder that the majority of people are dumbed down simpletons. So much ignorance is prevailing in this world, right now.

@NewInfinityRecursion 11 лет назад

how to calculate the Probability of this event any idea ?

@bluegreenprod 11 лет назад

Nice presentation.

@Brainbuster 11 лет назад

No, because in the first case, the lock was already waiting to permit entry for the key. Both key and lock are given. In the second case, you have to "make" a key fit a given lock.

@sbeckett91 7 лет назад

Wonderful talk! Though I keep looking at how loose his watch is.

@IanRBryce 6 лет назад

Hey Adam, I enjoyed your talk at Skepticon on prime numbers. Can I suggest some software to monitor the RU-vid View Counter above, and when appropriate, say Congratulations, you are a Prime Numbered viewer.

@ryanv414 10 лет назад

and I quote.... "word up... L dawg". He just owned his audience

@cnsadd 11 лет назад

17 minutes and 17 seconds. Now that's a prime TED talk!

@roidkaro 11 лет назад

I know that GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Seach) is precisely looking for the primes discussed in this video, so you may want to check their website ;) Moreover, you can help them searching for primes with your own computer!

@superchimp 11 лет назад

great TED talk!

@zinoba17 11 лет назад

Sieve of Eratosthenes will find all prime numbers, but it's way to slow to determine big prime numbers in an acceptable amount of time. In cryptographic algorithms, where you need giant prime numbers, you would simply guess a number and then test it with the Miller-Rabin test. It will tell you if the number is most likely a prime number, but it won't guarantee it like Eratosthenes does. To my knowledge it's the best known algorithm. Hope that puts you on the right track. Just google it for more.

@Benijermin 11 лет назад

That was an amazing Ted Talk... Who knew prime numbers could be so beautiful... :')

@RainbowSpock2 11 лет назад

Awesome talk!

@Kivex 11 лет назад

nice speech very intertaining

@ik04 11 лет назад

Beautiful and well spoken! (I'm a number freak, too!)

@XRaYNL 11 лет назад

Just goosebumps... just...

@SeattleMashUps 11 лет назад

Great talk, thank you Aussie sir.

@TheSara90 11 лет назад

this guy is brilliant!!

@arcade5765 6 лет назад

this guy's a really good speaker

@WrestlingTournamentsDotCom 11 лет назад

this guy is hilarious, I could watch him talk about anything

@frederick4455 11 лет назад

Simply perfect.

@nuvamusic 11 лет назад

Is there any useful or direct applicability derived from searching for those mega prime numbers? Not hating at all, just curious. Maybe there's something else about them that I don't remember/know of?..besides the divisibility thing that is.

@xzaz2 11 лет назад

TED has become a comedy center.

@MrKapamaru 11 лет назад

Entertaining talk

@LattiMonstaaa 11 лет назад

as said at 6:14, 2^11 - 1 = 2047 = 23*89

@RollTheFemers 11 лет назад

11:49 - How is it "22 [MB]"? Would it not be more like 16.6 MB?

@Tsubaki406 10 лет назад

Very interesting!

@stevo632 11 лет назад

I'm sure there are more, but they are often used in encryption and cryptology.

@awesum0animalover 11 лет назад

I like this guy.

@richarddeese1991 5 лет назад

Good on ya, mate! Lovely talk. I actually wrote a little program in BASIC years ago, which can tell me if a number is prime. Of course, it can't handle anything larger than 10 digits. But it's fun! :) 𝓡𝓲𝓴𝓴𝓲 𝓣𝓲𝓴𝓴𝓲.

@christophermallon7642 9 лет назад

Good post enjoyed watching it

@chanpod 11 лет назад

The E in TED does stand for entertainment. Also, a good speech tends to incorporate some humor.

@Japzel 11 лет назад

What's the code for searching the prime numbers? I'd like to try it out on my PC.

@kevinagee4364 4 года назад

why did my eyes water at the end

@BennoRob95 6 лет назад

Really good one

@PartystormDJ 11 лет назад

THAT was incredible.

@videosight1 11 лет назад

exciting, enlightening

@YaskSrivastava 10 лет назад

Damn , the ending was exhilarating ;) Higs Boson

@Cyllid 11 лет назад

Because as he pointed out, that is not a guaranteed formula to find a new prime. (they probably do, just in case it works, but it's very unlikely)

@prof.tarcist.xavier1394 4 года назад

Apresentação incrível

@proclashoflords 10 лет назад

I've seen Adam Spencer in person at Powerhouse

@BoredErica 10 лет назад

Funny guy. Reminds me of Prime95... search for primes and all that, used as a stress test for CPU overclocks.

@iansaunders67 11 лет назад

Precisely my dear Watson!

@rubenscabral2657 3 года назад

Hello I'm from Brazil the formula of non-primes automatically you discover the primes add up to 3+3+3+3... to infinity and the 7+7+7+7... to infinity and the perfect squares odd minus with ending 5 .9×9.11×11.