For The Largest Prime

by David Harvey
with apologies to Billy Joel

Whoah, oh, oh, oh
For the largest prime
Whoah, oh, oh
For the largest

I discovered something big tonight
I don't think that Euclid's proof is right
What else could I do?
I had to show it's not true,
So now I'm searching for the largest prime.

Once I thought that primes went on and on,
Now I know for certain that it's wrong
So if you tell me,
Primes go on to infinity,
I tell you I can find the largest prime.

Whoah, oh, oh, oh
For the largest prime
Whoah, oh, oh
For the largest

Got some friends who'd help to prove me right,
Blackboard calculations day and night
We took no chances,
Didn't want to get wrong answers,
Coz then we'd never find the largest prime.

We wrote down every number we could find
We wrote really small
It took us a while
When we finished, we were so surprised,
They all factorised,
Even the big ones

Who knows how much further they'll go on
Should I do this with a Pentium?
It's a gut feeling,
The set of primes, it has a ceiling,
I'm sure that we can find the largest prime.

I had second thoughts at the start,
My logic, it seemed
To fall right apart.
All the time my work was criticised,
I was despised
And I'd never get published.

I don't care what consequence it brings,
Implications for sets and groups and rings,
It's kind of eerie,
This holy grail of number theory,
I know that we can find the largest prime.

Whoah, oh, oh, oh
For the largest prime
Whoah, oh, oh
For the largest prime.