I am pleased to announce that my participation in the ECM distributed computing project (organized via Yoyo@home) has resulted in the discovery of a hitherto unknown factor for a large number. I am credited with the discovery here.

Did you know that the number 118^67 + 67^118 (see its long form here) has a multiplicative factor of 2091937057168244837833711997693707725557784572281 – a formidable 49-digit number?

Well, now you know, because of all the computing power I have devoted to the ECM project since late 2011. Finding such large factors of even larger numbers is a rarity. My computer had to examine 1546 project workunits (each involving an attempt to factor a large number) before finding one that resulted in a new discovery. I have thus far accumulated 277,345.88 BOINC credits for the ECM project.

ECM is a free distributed computing project that anyone can participate in. Its goal is to find factors for large numbers using the method of Elliptic Curve Factorization. It is highly rewarding to be able to devote otherwise idle resources to an endeavor for the convenient discovery of previously unknown truth.