I just invented a way to factor prime numbers!

Alas, it has already been invented:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DirectSearchFactorization.html

Even came up with the idea of skipping multiples of primes, and searching only up to the square root of the number. :-(

I wonder when that was invented?

Well, at least I know how fast it is compared to current methods anyway.

And if you're wondering why I was trying to find ways to factor primes, I just happened to read a link on Blue's news about a new 9.1 million digit prime, and I got an idea for how one might speed the process up and decided to work it out, and that what I came up with. So no reason. :-)

Well, Congrats anyhow :-)

Nice one Sswifty!

That's nothing! I invented double-buffering and cube-mapping.



Handy function. I want that on my calculator!

Yeah, only after stealing the idea from me :-(

Bah ... those are all nothing! I invented mastu.... er ... never mind ...

Well done Mr. Swift. Not only did you invent something someone else had already done, but it was the least effective way to do it. With mad skills like that, you'll be able to get a job at Microsoft in no time.

Flame:
Hey now, it's not the LEAST effective way! The LEAST effective way would be to attempt to divide the number by every number between 2 and the number. My method has a cost of Sqr(N)/2 rather than of N. (Assuming you only bother with skipping all the even numbers rather than trying to avoid checking every prime multiple of course.)

Also my method is easy to understand whereas all those other methods are horribly complicated and I can't understand any of them! So there!

/never took Calculus

Well for someone who didn't you have a remarkably good grasp of mathematical principles.

Swift is matematical genius, he just doesn't wont to realise this!!!

"matematical" you mean he's good a reproduction or what? I bet he likes to think he is anyway ;-)

In the UK "Calculus" means "differential calculus and integral calculus" i.e. two techniques to be applied. I took A-Level maths which had two main courses Statistics (and all related guff) and the other (I think) was called Advanced Maths, which was basically all the algebra stuff which you Americans seem to call calculus. It seems odd that a term for one type of technique has been given to an entire mathematical genre...

I was going to ask what all the Calculus crap was.....!

lol @ DH re: "Did I mention I invented Calculus?"

"Well for someone who didn't you have a remarkably good grasp of mathematical principles."


Yeah, well, it just seems that way. :-) It is derived from years of effort finding places which describe the stuff I need to know in terms I can understand, or infer it from the text desribing the algorithms. I can't read most of the equations you find in magazines like Game Developer. I know basic algebra and geometry. Which is to say I know how to simplify basic algebraic equations and SohCahToa, and I've taught myself how to use vectors and dot products and cross products. MATRICES CONFUSE ME. I sort of know how you multiply one by another, but I really don't understand all the whys and wherefores of why they are used or how to create my own. All the physics stuff I do? My flight sim? You have Nasa's website and some physics students in IRC to thank for that. :-) My algorithms for clipping polygons for my shadow system? Gamasutra articles on the sutherland-hodgemann algorithm.

I got F's in all my math classes except Geometry which I got A's in because it was a basic Goemetry class which didn't require you to do any proofs.

So really, I suck at math, and excel at Google. :-)

Oh and as for the Calculus I speak of, when I see stuff like this:



And this:



I can't read it. I don't know what f(x) means, or what that big S thing is for. And when they start throwing greek symbols in there which may or may not be variables or some special math thing it only serves to confuse me further.

That's the price one pays when he attempts to assert his intellectual superiority over the rest of the species.

Looks like I'm not the only one.

Dont feel bad there swift. I am the same way. I went through advanced calculus in Highschool. Always excelled in math. but when it comes to those formulas, I always get lost with the symbols and shorthand writting. I tend to google till I find something easier to read. Dr. Math tends to give me alot of my answers.


I fail to see your point.


Same here. They seem like a simple concept, but for some reason they are hard for me to grasp.

I still give you kudos for this though swift. There are so many times where I try to code something useful and find a really clever way of doing somethign just to find that someone else did it, and did it one step better, and did it 3 years ago.....

Although you must admit, that reinventing the wheel does have its' advantages. One example was when I drew out and created my own 4 bit processor in Highschool. I didnt look at any other designs, I made it from scratch and designed the circutry based simply on gate logic of my own design. It wasnt for a school project or anything, I just wanted to make one. 4 start from scratches and many unusable PCBs later I had a working circut. After which I started to look at the x86 and find many similarities in basic design. The many obstacles I had to over come were common obstacles, and it made me feel better to have done it on my own rather than stand on someone's shoulders and just make one better.

It's very self gratifying, and in that respect it reminds you that deep down your very logical and have the potential for anything!

>I don't know what f(x) means

Come on Swift, you know that, it means function of x, I'm sure you know what S (Sum of All I think)also means, and if you don't know you can learn it, it's JUST sintax of math language ;)= Right now because you are ignoring the math syntax you are riding on a donkey, but someone like you could be riding on a horse of first class ;)

Just call me Shawn Quixote then.



"Hark! 'Tis a serpent most vile! Fear not fair maiden, for I shall kill this sinister beast! Sancho Pointer! Redirect it towards me from behind!"

bah maximo beat me to it, quite amusing that f(x) is a function of x, sounds like programming doesn' it? That Sum symbol often has numbers on the top and bottom and is use for Integration and Diffential Calculus, so it's funny I was mentioning it earlier.

I see pictures, but they're not funny ones.