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47th Mersenne Prime Confirmed

Posted by kdawson on from the that's-odd dept.

radiot88 writes to let us know that he heard a confirmation of the discovery of the 47th known Mersenne Prime on NPR's Science Friday (audio here). The new prime, 2^42,643,801 - 1, is actually smaller than the one discovered previously. It was "found by Odd Magnar Strindmo from Melhus, Norway. This prime is the second largest known prime number, a 'mere' 141,125 digits smaller than the Mersenne prime found last August. Odd is an IT professional whose computers have been working with GIMPS since 1996 testing over 1,400 candidates. This calculation took 29 days on a 3.0 GHz Intel Core2 processor. The prime was independently verified June 12th by Tony Reix of Bull SAS in Grenoble, France..."

9 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Odd's prime by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, all primes greater than two are odd, but only one of them is Odd's!

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    Hell Segmentation fault

    1. Re:Odd's prime by Snarf+You · · Score: 1, Funny

      I wonder what the odds were that he actually found it?

    2. Re:Odd's prime by Melkman · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's odd when you think about it.

    3. Re:Odd's prime by bcrowell · · Score: 5, Funny

      His brother, Even Magnar Strindmo, is also an IT professional. Even, like his brother Odd, has been testing candidates since 1996. The latest candidate in Even's search was 2^42,643,801-2, which was found to be composite. The very next number, 2^42,643,801-1, was the one his brother found to be prime. "Yeah, it kind of hurts to get so close and not be the one who got it," admits Even, "but I gave it my best game. We agreed back in '96 that we'd split up the work and go even-odd. I guess it was just a matter of luck that he got the first prime. I'm going to keep on trying, though. He's ahead now, 1-0, but if we keep going, I figure at some point I'll pull ahead."

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  2. Re:Cool processor by Nutria · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm not sure where you live

    He lives at home with his parents (or maybe in a dormitory room) and doesn't have a clue as to what it actually costs to run a home.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  3. Re:Cool processor by bergonom · · Score: 5, Funny

    What are the odds this odd odd would be found by Odd?

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  4. Re:Can we have the value? by Eudial · · Score: 3, Funny

    In base 2, it's 1111[42,643,792 more 1:s]1111.
    In base 16 it's 0xffff[2,665,229 more f:s]ffff.

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    GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
  5. Re:And when they find the 50th... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    .. the Great Old Ones will return, all life on earth will be destroyed.

    Oh, come on, Biden isn't that bad.

  6. Re:Why is this useful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    And nothing of value was found.