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42nd Mersenne Prime Confirmed

Posted by Zonk on from the wooo-party dept.

Jazzer_Techie writes "The possible Mersenne Prime discovered last week has now been confirmed. This prime has 7,816,230 digits, which makes it not only the largest Mersenne Prime, but also the largest prime of any kind ever discovered. For those who don't want to take time to read the article, the prime is 2^25,964,951 - 1."

30 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. 2^25,964,951 - 1 by Joey+Patterson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can anyone post those digits in case the site gets /.'ed?

    1. Re:2^25,964,951 - 1 by mrspecialhead · · Score: 5, Funny

      Here's an Exclusive Binary Preview!

      11111111111111111111111111111111
      11111111111111111111111111111111
      11111111111111111111111111111111...

      --Your free demo has expired. For access to the rest of this content, please subscribe!--

    2. Re:2^25,964,951 - 1 by Eric+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

      My web site has the full expansion in binary. It's over 25 megabytes, so please don't download it unless you really need it.

    3. Re:2^25,964,951 - 1 by yincrash · · Score: 1, Funny

      it turns out that, yes, 25,964,950 1's text encoded is infact ~25 megabytes. i bet i could losslessly compress that with a 1:2000000 ratio.

    4. Re:2^25,964,951 - 1 by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hope your web server has gzip and/or bzip compression...

    5. Re:2^25,964,951 - 1 by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 3, Funny

      So can I...

      2^25,964,951 - 1
      Voila!

    6. Re:2^25,964,951 - 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      That doesn't look like any syntatically valid form of "C" that I'm familiar with.

  2. Man. by DrEldarion · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those math freaks sure are a bunch of GIMPS.

    1. Re:Man. by halivar · · Score: 2, Funny

      Those math freaks sure are a bunch of GIMPS.

      All I know is this: Stephen Hawking is married to a real woman and I'm not.

  3. Re:prime post by dhakbar · · Score: 2, Funny

    #11788398

    That's an even number, so your post wasn't prime. Liar!

  4. OMG by computerme · · Score: 4, Funny

    No Way!!

    2^25,964,951 - 1.

    Is my password! Oh Man, I guess everyone knows it now....

    1. Re:OMG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Dont worry, I've changed it for you. :)

  5. And useful, too! by Eric+Smith · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now we can use the 41st and 42nd for a 50 megabit RSA key.

  6. Its the answer! by Rs_Conqueror · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is the 42nd one? I wonder if that means anything...

    --
    Behold, another webcomic!
  7. 42!!! by MicroBerto · · Score: 3, Funny

    This one contains all the information to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything!

    --
    Berto
    1. Re:42!!! by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

      I think it was something along the line of "What is the product of the sixth and the nineth Mersenne Prime?"

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  8. I wonder by opusman · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe Paris Hilton could use this prime to encrypt her phone book next time?

  9. to put this into perspective by sgant · · Score: 2, Funny

    To put this into real-world perspective, if you had 1 dollar for every digit in the number, you would have 7,816,230 dollars!

    Wow...

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
    1. Re:to put this into perspective by kanweg · · Score: 4, Funny


      So??

      Bill G.

  10. Re:Why? by irokitt · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...of what possible value is a really big prime number?


    I believe the search for Mersenne primes continues solely for the purpose of impressing women in bars. No, I don't think it would work either.
    --
    If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
  11. Next Mersenne Prime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I predict that the next one that will be found will be the 43rd. You heard it here first!

  12. Big Deal - Javascript!! by XanC · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found it by leaving my browser open for a while on this page.

  13. Torrent by TorrentNinja · · Score: 4, Funny

    Here is a torrent of the prime number.. it's 25MB..

    M42.torrent

    Some good times testing bandwidth :)

  14. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    There are only 42 Mersenne numbers

    And where in the world did you get that impression? There are an infinite number of Mersenne primes. I'd list them here, but unfortunately there is only a finite space available.

  15. Re:Why? by Ayaress · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe there are an infinite number, but there are 42 found. I'd list them here, but at least one of them is seven million digits and my 8 key is broken.

  16. Re:Largest Prime? by SamBeckett · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is actually true but only if you enumerated every single prime up to your largest:

    2*3 - 1 = 5
    2*3*5 - 1 = 29
    2*3*5*7 - 1 = 209 = 11*19

    haha just kidding. /runs away

  17. Re:1 is not a prime by wwest4 · · Score: 3, Funny

    You know, with an attitude like yours, you really missed your calling as a nerd battle rapper.

  18. Re:Why? by onemorechip · · Score: 4, Funny

    It has reached the point where proving a number prime is MUCH easier than finding any factors of it.

    Unless the number in question is composite. In that case, it is MUCH easier to find factors of it, than to prove that it is a prime.

    --
    But, I wanted socialized health insurance!
  19. Damn, I thought it said... by payndz · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...Metroid Prime. I would finally have had a new game for my Gamecube!

    --
    You must think in Russian.
  20. Re:Might not be the 42nd largest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Wouldn't removing 2 from the integers make 4 a prime number?