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45th Known Mersenne Prime Found?

Posted by samzenpus on from the really-big-number dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has apparently discovered a new world-record prime number. A GIMPS client computer reported the number on August 23rd, and verification is currently under way. The verification could take up to two weeks to complete. The last Mersenne prime discovered was over 9.8 million digits long, strongly suggesting that the new value may break the 10 million digit barrier — qualifying for the EFF's $100,000 prize!"

1 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. Perfect numbers and Mersenne Primes by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Another fun relationship is between Mersenne Primes and Perfect Numbers, numbers whose factors add up to themselves.

    If 2^n-1 is prime, (2^n-1)(2^(n-1)) is perfect (and has a distinctive pattern of digits in binary, to boot...). The proof in this direction is easy. Proving that all even perfect numbers are of this form is a little harder, but doable.

    The hard one is proving whether or not there are any odd perfect numbers, and, if so, what form they might take. Nobody has done this yet.

    ...laura