iTWire - Thirty-mile long prime number found: Biggest ever

Thirty-mile long prime number found: Biggest ever

by William Atkins
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Page 1 of 3 ! The Great Internet Marsenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project and American computer manager Edson Smith have teamed up to find a prime number that is almost 13 million digits in length—the largest prime number ever found. A prime number, sometimes called simply “a prime,” is any natural number that is divisible only by 1 and itself. For example, the prime number “11” is only divisible by “11” and “1.” An infinite number of prime numbers exist. The first twelve prime numbers are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, and 37. GIMPS (or, Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search) is a volunteer effort that uses free downloadable software from the Internet to search for Mersenne prime numbers. American computer scientist George F. Woltman founded the organization. A Mersenne number (M_n) is a positive integer that is one less than a power (n) of two, or: M_n = 2ⁿ -1. And, now, for the "Big" news. See the largest prime number ever found on page two. << First page < 1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

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