Math: A PRIME NUMBER RECORD

There will never be the last number. You can add a zillion zeros and there will still be a greater number. Recently, a computer search, gave a prime number that was 7,816,230 digits long! Can you believe it? Even if you wrote very quickly, it would take you over 9 days to copy it! That itself tell you how big it is!

It's hard to tell when a very big number is prime. It takes a long time even with all the shortcuts that mathematicians have figured out! This number was found as a result of Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). Many people around the world have gave sometime to find it. 250,000 computers are involved in GIMPS. This number turned up on Martin Nowak's computer. This number was about 500,000 digits greater than the previous one.

Math: Heads and Tails isn't Fair! (Probability)

Think back to a game during gym when you had to flip a coin to see who wins the tie-breaker. Remember when the other team won? You probably yelled "That's so not fair!" at the top of your lungs. Then, you were most likely didn't really think about what you said. What if you were right?

Mathematicians at Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Cruz have been researching this. They came to decide that to get accurate results, the coin needs to be spun the proper way. Sometimes, when the coin is flipped it may not even be spun the right way! It may just go into the air and come down. During experiments, researchers learned it is impossible to tell from just watching the coin to see if it flipped or not.

To see the coin move, the coin was video taped. They learned that the coin has a 51% chance of landing on the side it began with. To sum it all up, coin tosses aren't worth it so don't bother to do them!

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Math: How to Slice a Cake Fairly for two People (Fractions)

Imagine: There is a big cake on the table. One side has nuts along with the usual and the other side has coconuts along with the usual. You and a friend want to split it: EQUALLY. You would like to split it so that you each get some nuts and some coconuts. WHAT DO YOU DO?

What do you do? Look at the picture. Can you see the lines 'A' and 'B'? 'A' would be cut where you think two pieces would have an equal value. 'B' is cut where your friend thinks the two pieces are equal. You would get the piece on the left and your friend would get the piece on the right. Now, you have the middle section leftover. What about the middle? You would have someone spit the middle. You each would get a piece from the middle. This is an idea. Although does it really make sense?

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