[seqfan] Fwd: Vampire Number Search

[Olivier Gerard]

Dear Members,

I forward you a request for cooperation.
Of course this project is intended as a student project, but
it will certainly lead to various sequences for the EIS.

You certainly know young people who would love to cooperate
over the net with other students for a mathematical project.

I am sure people like Patrick will like to look at cases for
other bases.

Probably, a bit of theory could also dramatically enhance the enumeration
of these numbers.

I have put Clifford Pickover in copy. He maybe not aware of
this project, which after all started from one of his ideas.

For interested members, there is a more "serious" net effort
for Golomb Rulers. See at:
http://members.aol.com/golomb20/index.html


Olivier Gerard


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From: YoUnGviEtS at aol.com [mailto:YoUnGviEtS at aol.com]
Sent: 01 May 1999 23:38
To: iecc-projects at stolaf.edu
Subject: Vampire Number Search


Project:   The Great Canadian World Wide Web Vampire Number Search

Project Overview:   My grade 12 computer science class and I are looking for
about 1,000 participants who will run a small computer program on their
computers overnight, and email back a data file of results.   We would like
to get participants from all over the world.

Details:   A vampire number is a whimsical mathematical idea, introduced by
computer graphics guru Clifford Pickover, in the June '95 issue of Discover
magazine.   It makes note of the fact that when you multiply two numbers,
all of the digits in those two numbers occasionally show up in the result.
For
example, 21 x 87 =1827, or 146 x 938 = 136948.   The number 1827 is a four
digit vampire number, and 136948 is a six digit vampire numbers.   Looking
for these numbers makes for an interesting computer programming project.   I
have several web pages that describe vampire numbers in detail.   See
http://grenvillecc.ca/faculty/jchilds and follow the link(s) to vampire
numbers.   (Or you can go directly to
http://grenvillecc.ca/faculty/jchilds/vamli12.htm)

To find all the 10 digit vampire numbers (over 100,000 of them) it took my
computer science class all weekend (50 hours) using 16 computers.   To find
all the 12 digit vampire numbers, it would take one computer, running
continuously, about 8 years!   My computer science class hopes to find them
all by dividing the job up among a large number of computers.  If a teacher
would like to coordinate a group of students, or a single student, we would
love to have you participate. We will email you a program, you run it
overnight, or maybe over a few nights, and email back the resulting data
file.   (Or you could just run it in the background.)   Participants and/or
schools will be highlighted on the vampire number web site.   We would like
to start the program on May 1st, and have it completed by the end of the
month.   We hope to hear from you!

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