Is there actually a use for these longer rulers?

[jasong]

Please don't think of me as dissing anyone, or the project, but is there a reason other than "just for the hell of it"(this is a good enough reason, btw) for wanting to discover the optimal length for these longer rulers?

When I looked at actual usage, which was, admittedly, only one page on Wikipedia, I noticed the rulers were only about 5 marks long. Is there actually a known use for these longer rulers, or is it "Just for the hell of it."?

[alpha]

There is plenty of information out there about Golomb Rulers, though I can't find anything specific about the size of OGRs which are used practically in science today.

I would guess that these larger OGRs are useful because they would still apply to the same areas of practical use.

If you're still lacking incentive to participate, several members are offering a (small) monetary reward (http://faq.distributed.net/cache/83.html) for the people which turn in the optimal 25 mark ruler. Actually that page mentions "the winner" but each stub has to be checked twice, so in theory there should be at least two "winners". I think it is probably out of date.

I'd consider this a much more worthwhile mathematical search than just another prime number. As it stands we only know 24 OGRs.