The Latest Addition To The Prime Number Family Is 17-Million Digits Strong
Okay, folks! We have a new 'largest known prime number' and it is 17-million digits long. For your curiosity, the number is 2^(57,885,161) - 1, when left to its least intimidating form. Notice the figure? It's a Mersenne Prime -- from Wolfram MathWorld, a unique kind of prime number first identified in the 17th century, and written in the form of 2^(p) - 1, where p is prime number.
[caption id="attachment_45866" align="aligncenter" width="600"]#-Link-Snipped-# xkcd[/caption]
The founder of the prime number, Curtis Cooper, from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg made this discovery as a part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search - PrimeNet, which is a distributed computing project devoted to the search of such numbers. Wonder why? Well, for the hunt, of course but prime numbers are also credited to be of great importance in cryptography.
There's no formula for calculating the next Mersenne prime number in line which validates why the previous record was made in 2009. GIMPS uses volunteers' computers to test each number in turn and the lucky user who finds the prime wins $3000 prize money. Futuristic Lottery, I say.
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#Â Image: #-Link-Snipped-#
[caption id="attachment_45866" align="aligncenter" width="600"]#-Link-Snipped-# xkcd[/caption]
The founder of the prime number, Curtis Cooper, from the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg made this discovery as a part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search - PrimeNet, which is a distributed computing project devoted to the search of such numbers. Wonder why? Well, for the hunt, of course but prime numbers are also credited to be of great importance in cryptography.
There's no formula for calculating the next Mersenne prime number in line which validates why the previous record was made in 2009. GIMPS uses volunteers' computers to test each number in turn and the lucky user who finds the prime wins $3000 prize money. Futuristic Lottery, I say.
Source: #-Link-Snipped-#Â Image: #-Link-Snipped-#
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