Book of Prime Number Records

This text originated as a lecture delivered November 20, 1984, at Queen's University, in the undergraduate colloquim series established to honor Professors A. J. Coleman and H. W. Ellis and to acknow- ledge their long lasting interest in the quality of teaching under- graduate students. In another colloquim lecture, my colleague Morris Orzech, who had consulted the latest edition of the Guilllless Book oj Records, remainded me very gently that the most "e;innumerate"e; people of the world are of a certain tribe in Mato Grosso, Brazil. They do not even have a word to express the number "e;two"e; or the concept of plurality. "e;Yes Morris, I'm from Brazil, but my book will contain numbers different from 'one.' "e; He added that the most boring 800-page book is by two Japanese mathematicians (whom I'll not name), and consists of about 16 million digits of the number 11. "e;I assure you Morris, that in spite of the beauty of the apparent randomness of the decimal digits of 11, I'll be sure that my text will include also some words."e; Acknowledgment. The manuscript of this book was prepared on the word processor by Linda Nuttall. I wish to express my appreciation for the great care, speed, and competence of her work.