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New Largest Prime

posted by janrinok on Wednesday October 23 2024, @09:32PM   Printer-friendly
from the 2-3-5-7-11-13-17-19-23-29-... dept.

looorg writes:

https://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M136279841

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has discovered the largest known prime number, 2136,279,841-1, having 41,024,320 decimal digits. Luke Durant, from San Jose, California, found the prime on October 12th.

The new prime number, also known as M136279841, is calculated by multiplying together 136,279,841 twos, and then subtracting 1. It is over 16 million digits larger than the previous record prime number, in a special class of extremely rare prime numbers known as Mersenne primes. It is only the 52nd known Mersenne prime ever discovered, each increasingly more difficult to find. Mersenne primes were named for the French monk Marin Mersenne, who studied these numbers more than 350 years ago. GIMPS, founded in 1996, has discovered the last 18 Mersenne primes. Volunteers download a free program to search for these primes, with a $3000 award offered to anyone lucky enough to find a new prime. Prof. Chris Caldwell founded an authoritative web site on the largest known primes which is now maintained by volunteers, and has an excellent history of Mersenne primes.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2024, @04:10AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 24 2024, @04:10AM (#1378420)

    Large primes are used for data encryption and the like.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Thursday October 24 2024, @07:42PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 24 2024, @07:42PM (#1378524) Journal

    "That is true!" explained the senator. "We have now devised a ROT17 encryption which requires a different operation to decrypt than ROT13."

    "Furthermore", explained the senator, "we chose 17 because it is a prime number, unlike 13."

    --
    If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?