full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Adam Spencer: Why I fell in love with monster prime numbers

Unscramble the Blue Letters


This number is 17 and a half thousand slides long, and we know it is prime as confidently as we know the nmuebr seven is prime. That flils me with almost suaexl excitement. And who am I kidding when I say almost?

(Laughter)

I know what you're thinking: Adam, we're hppay that you're happy, but why should we care? Let me give you just three reasons why this is so beautiful.

First of all, as I explained, to ask a computer "Is that number prime?" to type it in its abbreviated form, and then only about six lines of code is the test for primacy, is a remarkably simple question to ask. It's got a remarkably clear yes/no answer, and just requires phenomenal grnut. Large prime numbers are a great way of testing the speed and accuracy of computer cphis.

Open Cloze


This number is 17 and a half thousand slides long, and we know it is prime as confidently as we know the ______ seven is prime. That _____ me with almost ______ excitement. And who am I kidding when I say almost?

(Laughter)

I know what you're thinking: Adam, we're _____ that you're happy, but why should we care? Let me give you just three reasons why this is so beautiful.

First of all, as I explained, to ask a computer "Is that number prime?" to type it in its abbreviated form, and then only about six lines of code is the test for primacy, is a remarkably simple question to ask. It's got a remarkably clear yes/no answer, and just requires phenomenal _____. Large prime numbers are a great way of testing the speed and accuracy of computer _____.

Solution


  1. grunt
  2. chips
  3. fills
  4. sexual
  5. number
  6. happy

Original Text


This number is 17 and a half thousand slides long, and we know it is prime as confidently as we know the number seven is prime. That fills me with almost sexual excitement. And who am I kidding when I say almost?

(Laughter)

I know what you're thinking: Adam, we're happy that you're happy, but why should we care? Let me give you just three reasons why this is so beautiful.

First of all, as I explained, to ask a computer "Is that number prime?" to type it in its abbreviated form, and then only about six lines of code is the test for primacy, is a remarkably simple question to ask. It's got a remarkably clear yes/no answer, and just requires phenomenal grunt. Large prime numbers are a great way of testing the speed and accuracy of computer chips.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
prime number 7
prime numbers 6
frank nelson 4
nelson cole 4
largest prime 4
harry potter 4
breakfast radio 3
curtis cooper 3
square peg 2
biggest prime 2
massive primes 2
large prime 2
radio show 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
frank nelson cole 4
large prime numbers 2
largest prime number 2

Important Words


  1. abbreviated
  2. accuracy
  3. adam
  4. answer
  5. beautiful
  6. care
  7. chips
  8. clear
  9. code
  10. computer
  11. confidently
  12. excitement
  13. explained
  14. fills
  15. form
  16. give
  17. great
  18. grunt
  19. happy
  20. kidding
  21. large
  22. laughter
  23. lines
  24. long
  25. number
  26. numbers
  27. phenomenal
  28. primacy
  29. prime
  30. question
  31. reasons
  32. remarkably
  33. requires
  34. sexual
  35. simple
  36. slides
  37. speed
  38. test
  39. testing
  40. thousand
  41. type