SuperComputing And Mr.Shaffer

  A student from Michigan State named Michael Shaffer recently discovered the largest prime number known to man. I would tell it to you but the number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. When asked about his accomplishment, he said, “It's a neat accomplishment, but it really doesn't have any applicability."  

  It strikes me as amusing that he was so quick to dismiss his accomplishment. In order to achieve this feat, Shaffer linked together 211,000 personal computers together to form a supercomputer to pull of the 9 trillion calculations a second computing power needed to search for the number. The techniques he developed to find the number may be the real significance discovery. 

  I have often found teachers to have the same attitude that Mr. Shaffer had.  At the end of a year, they look back at and wonder “Did I really accomplish anything” and “Was the time and effort worth what they really learned”?  But they often miss the real benefit they had on themselves and their students. 

  I want to say thank you to all our Bible class teachers that have worked so hard over the past year. Because of your work the Bible has been taught and minds have been opened to the power of God’s word. You may think “all I did is teach a Bible class” but really you have linked your students to the truth that can guide them the rest of their lives. The power that God’s word can have in their lives his immeasurable, even with Mr. Schaffer supercomputer.