Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

40th Mersenne Prime Found

Posted by michael on from the primal-urges dept.

FenwayFrank writes "A release from New Scientist announces that the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search found another one: 2^20996011 - 1 is prime. Weighing in at 6,320,430 digits (6 megabytes of prime number...), it becomes the world's largest. Slashdot readers may remember then announcement of the 39th Mersenne Prime, a mere 3.5 million digits."

8 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Fraud by addaon · · Score: 5, Funny

    The last digit is a four!

    Wait, no, it just got slashdotted before it fully loaded...

    --

    I've had this sig for three days.
  2. Here's something stupid to do. by satanami69 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found my /. ID (209636) shows up 5 times.

    I wonder who has the most occurrences.

    --
    I really hate Dan Patrick.
  3. I bet it's not that big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone claims their prime is over 6 million digits in length when in reality most are only about 5.5 million digits.

  4. Finally! by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now I can generate a secure PGP key pair!

    --
    If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
  5. Wow! by HoldmyCauls · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's actually 1916 pages in lynx under a 1024x768 framebuffer!!!

    Hah, you really thought I actually counted for a second there!

    --
    Emacs: for people who just never know when to :q!
  6. Awesome! by falsification · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is great news. Once we have the 42nd, we will know the secret of the universe.

  7. math == piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    by a strange coincidence, the 40th prime is also an MP3-encoded audio file of an unreleased Missy Elliot track.

    the RIAA is lobbying to have mathematics outlawed due to the $400 billion lost yearly to these illegal primes.

    remember kids, learning math makes you a pirate! stick to watching TV and eating delicious Oreo(R) cookies!

  8. New name for this? by dacarr · · Score: 4, Funny

    If one googol is 10^100, would this number be about 6 smeagol?

    --
    This sig no verb.