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40th Mersenne Prime Found
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."
The last digit is a four!
Wait, no, it just got slashdotted before it fully loaded...
I've had this sig for three days.
I found my /. ID (209636) shows up 5 times.
I wonder who has the most occurrences.
I really hate Dan Patrick.
Now I can generate a secure PGP key pair!
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
This is not necessarily the 40th Mersenne Prime, just the 40th that we've found. We still need to prove many ones in between to be composite before we can mark its place as 40th.
The first Mersenne primes are 3, 7, 31, 127, etc. There are only 39 known Mersenne primes.
Well, now it is 40 known Mersenne Primes, and also 6 discovered by the GIMPS: they need to change the front page to reflect this, and also some banners ("the largest 5 Mersenne primes").
I think it's worth noting that GIMPS not only discovers new Mersenne primes, but also is the discoverer of the biggest six known ones.
This is great news. Once we have the 42nd, we will know the secret of the universe.
Of course, it didn't occur to me to take a look at the Science section before submitting my own copy of this story (which, since it has several other useful links in it, follows):
Michael Shafer, a graduate student at Michigan State University, took time out for a "short victory dance" upon learning his computer had discovered the 40th known Mersenne prime as part of The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. The number itself is 2**20996011-1 and when expressed in base 10, has 6,320,430 digits (zipped copy). However, this is not necessarily the 40th Mersenne prime; there could be another between the previous largest known prime (M39=2**13466917-1, also discovered by GIMPS) and this one. Also worth noting is the still-standing USD$100,000 EFF prize for the discover of the first prime of at least 10 million (decimal) digits. GIMPS clients are available for various operating systems as well as information on how GIMPS would distribute the prize. A press release on the achievement is available as well as several articles. Of course, this also means there's a new largest known even perfect number in town.
Prudence forbids me to explain myself further. - Isaac Barre, 1765
If one googol is 10^100, would this number be about 6 smeagol?
This sig no verb.