Google helps crack the prime number test

Manindra Agrawal, a mathematician at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India, discovered a definitive test for prime numbers in August. The formula for determining that numbers are prime has eluded mathematicians for centuries.

Last week he visited Princeton last week to explain his discovery. “While no slouch in math, Prof. Agrawal said he sometimes had to use Google to find information on the more recondite aspects of number theory,” reports Lee Gomes.