Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2013 August 10

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August 10

Seventeen or Bust question

The second reference at Seventeen or Bust has me confused. The n bounds/upper column seems to imply that for the coefficients where a prime has not been found, the exponent has been tested to at least 17 million. But the Current test window/min n seems to be test that are in progress. Some of them go as low as the 11-million range (but it seems that there is no need to check exponents less than 17 million). Am I misunderstanding something? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:48, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Quadratic polynomial name

How does Quadratic polynomial get its name? What is "quad" about it? Does it come from measuring quadrangles? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 21:31, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

See Quadratic function#Origin of word. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:51, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:53, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Resolved