2^43,112,609 -1: Distributed computing finds largest prime yet

GIMPS – the distributed computing Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search – has found and confirmed the largest prime number ever: 243,112,609-1. It has 13 million digits and gives the GIMPS project a $100,000 award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Science News reports. Because 243,112,609-1 has the form 2n-1, it's called a "Mersenne prime," after a French monk [...] Share it

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