Nth digit of PI

[Andrew Dalke]

Mark Jackson wrote:
>Well, if you're captured by an alien who asserts that s/he has
>calculated pi to a gazillion decimal places, and your survival depends
>on determining whether the claim is true or not, you can check a few
>digits at random and either be certain it's false or 99.99. . .% sure
>it's true.  Never know when *that's* going to come in handy; in fact
>IIRC this very plot was once used on McGyver.


I heard a related comment once.  If you are taken by aliens and want
to be able to prove the event, ask them for a list of the first 100
Mersenne primes.  This assumes they are willing and technologically
able, but if it happens, its pretty good proof.

Hmm, or you could be the inventor of a marvelous new primality
test method and want to play a grand hoax on the world - which is
more likely? :)

                       Andrew