The World Has A New Largest-Known Prime Number
The Mersenne prime was discovered by a computer in Ocala, Fla., on Dec. 7. Mathematicians have spent the past two weeks verifying the calculations.
by Joe Palca
Dec 21, 2018
1 minute
There's a new behemoth in the ongoing search for ever-larger prime numbers — and it's nearly 25 million digits long.
A prime is a number that can be divided only by two other whole numbers: itself and 1.
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