In Java, the hash code for a String object is computed as s[0]*31^(n-1) + s[1]*31^(n-2) + ... + s[n-1] using int arithmetic, where s[i] is the ith character of the string, n is the length of the string, and ^ indicates exponentiation. Why is 31 used as a multiplier? I understand that the multiplier should be a relatively large prime number. So why not 29, or 37, or even 97?