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42nd Mersenne Prime Probably Discovered

Posted by Zonk on from the so-many-digits dept.

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."

3 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Practical Applications/Uses? by NitroWolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can someone explain what the application/use these primes are for? Not a flame, I'm honestly curious as to what something like this could be used for, as are others, I'm sure.

  2. Re:Mersenne Primes - Definition by jandrese · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, yeah, if you encode the Prime number in Binary it will not look Random at all. It will look like a giant string of 1s though... Aliens might mistake it for filler or something.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  3. Re:Uses? by pclminion · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, except that the Mersenne primes are well known and thus useless for cryptography -- at least, if you want any security.