Math's Holy Grail Found?

I still haven't figured out why you can't divide by zero . . .

[lawman]

. . . but what do you expect; I was a history major.

[guardian.co.uk...]

Mathematicians could be on the verge of solving two separate million dollar problems. If they are right - still a big if - and somebody really has cracked the so-called Riemann hypothesis, financial disaster might follow. Suddenly all cryptic codes could be breakable. No internet transaction would be safe.

[Sanenet]

It strikes me that if I could understand any of that I'd be getting worried.. :)

[photon]

The Riemann hypothesis would explain the apparently random pattern of prime numbers - numbers such as 3, 17 and 31, for instance, are all prime numbers: they are divisible only by themselves and one. Prime numbers are the atoms of arithmetic. They are also the key to internet cryptography: in effect they keep banks safe and credit cards secure.

From The Hindu [hinduonnet.com]

Much of the cryptography used by financial institutions (and general public use) is based on using very large primes to code and decode the data. Since it's difficult to determine the prime factors of a large number, the data is safe against all but a large-scale attack.

But if you can determine how primes are distributed, you open the door to more efficient code-breaking techniques. In theory, all of your financial and other encryted data could then be available to anyone.

That's a very simplified explanation of course, from someone who was a math major a couple of decades ago. :)

[gopi]

Man, i searched this and tried to read some paper in an university website ...

Result? -- My head hurts now :)

[mivox]

I'm sure I will find it fascinating, as soon as someone figures out how to explain it in layman's terms (or lawman's terms, perhaps?). ;)