The story of how a 2,000 digit number was identified by an Irish mathematician's computer earlier this year has just been published.
The publisher Mr Tim Robinson told guests at Kenny's Bookshop, Galway, last night how Mr John B. Cosgrave left his computer humming over a problem in January and found a 2,000 digit prime number.
Prime numbers are those which cannot be divided - seven and 31 being "prime" examples. As Mr Robinson said, their strange properties have tantalised mathematicians back to Euclid.
When Mr Cosgrave made his discovery, he had to tell someone, and so he e-mailed Jo and Ben, his niece and nephew. The text of that excited e-mail is the substance of a book published by Mr Robinson's company, Folding Landscapes, while the number itself makes up the striking cover. Speaking at last night's launch, Mr Robinson recalled how he heard the news from Fiachra O Marcaigh, Systems Editor of The Irish Times.
Millennium Prime by John B. Cosgrave is published at £15, plus £1.50 for postage, by Folding Landscapes, Round stone, Co Galway, telephone 095-35886.
