Researchers discovered world's largest prime number
Researchers have discovered the world’s largest prime number which consists of over 17 million digits.
- The number has now shot up to 2 multiplied by itself 57,885,161 times minus 1.
- The finding was made as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).
What is GIMPS?
- GIMPS is a distributed computing project designed to discover a particular kind of prime number first identified in the 17th century.
- All prime numbers can only be divided by themselves and 1.
What are Mersenne prime numbers?
- The Mersenne prime numbers are rare which occur in the form 2 multiplied by itself p times minus 1, where p is itself a prime number. Thus its general form is 2^p-1.
- The latest finding is only the 48th Mersenne prime ever found and the 14th discovered by GIMPS.
Month: Current Affairs - February, 2013
Category: Science & Technology Current Affairs