42nd Mersenne Prime Probably Discovered

RTKfan writes "Chalk up another achievement for distributed computing! MathWorld is reporting that the 42nd, and now-largest, Mersenne Prime has probably been discovered. The number in question is currently being double-checked by George Woltman, organizer of GIMPS (the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search). If this pans out, GIMPS will have been responsible for the eight current largest Mersenne Primes ever discovered."

Comments

Re:Would a math geek...

[Smallpond]

A Mersenne number is all ones when written in binary. If its prime, it is a Mersenne prime.

Two unknowns

[MaGogue]

This has not yet been confirmed, therefore there could be less than 42 known Mersenne primes.

Hovewer, according to MathWorld, there is a chance that it is not the 42nd Mersenne prime at all for another reason :

"However, note that the region between the 39th and 40th known Mersenne primes has not been completely searched, so it is not known if M20,996,011 is actually the 40th Mersenne prime.."
Looks like the big math guys don't exactly know how to count at all ;)

Re:Practical Applications/Uses?

[vivin]

It's a mathematical curiosity in some cases - just to find it for the sake of finding it, or for the glory of finding it. You know, like being the first to do something cool.

Also, necessity is the mother of invention. Even if Big Primes aren't really a necessity, it has brought forth some really innovative algorithms and methods to finding prime numbers. Furthermore, it has developed newer and faster ways for multiplying integers.

In 1968, Strassen figured out how to multiply integers quickly by using Fast Fourier Transforms. Strassen, along with Schönhage improved on the method and published a refined version in 1971. GIMPS now uses an improved version of their algorithm. This improved version was developed by Richard Crandall (a longtime researcher of Mersenne Primes).

Another application of finding Prime Numbers is to test computer hardware. Since testing Primes involves a thorough excercise of basic mathematical operations, it provides a good test for hardware. Software routines from GIMPS were used by Intel to test the PII and the Pentium Pro chips before they were shipped. The search for prime numbers was also indirectly responsible for the discovery of the infamous FDIV bug on the Pentium, during the calculation of the twin prime constant (by Thomas Nicely).