For All You Math Geeks Out There...A New Prime Number

[becka]

A new prime number has been discovered and not only is it the largest prime number discovered but it is also a Mersenne prime. As a former math major I can't help but get excited over something like this! I sure did love my number theory class.

Researchers discover largest prime number

Wednesday, January 4, 2006; Posted: 11:35 a.m. EST (16:35 GMT)

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- Researchers at a Missouri university have identified the largest known prime number, officials said Tuesday.

The team at Central Missouri State University, led by associate dean Steven Boone and mathematics professor Curtis Cooper, found it in mid-December after programming 700 computers years ago.

A prime number is a positive number divisible by only itself and 1 -- 2, 3, 5, 7 and so on.

The number that the team found is 9.1 million digits long. It is a Mersenne prime known as M30402457 -- that's 2 to the 30,402,457th power minus 1.

Mersenne primes are a special category expressed as 2 to the "p" power minus 1, in which "p" also is a prime number.

"We're super excited," said Boone, a chemistry professor. "We've been looking for such a number for a long time."

The discovery is affiliated with the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, a global contest using volunteers who run software that searches for the largest Mersenne prime.




http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/01/04/largest.prime.number.ap/index.html

 

[Minnie824]

I also am a former math major....my old professor must be loving this! I would think eventually more would be found too on the way up to infiniti.

 

[becka]

I would think eventually more would be found too on the way up to infiniti.

But can you prove it?

 

[dumboiu]

But can you prove it?

aw: aw: aw: aw:

 

[RickinNYC]

I always was pretty good at math, but I think I just heard a pop fizzle sound in my brain.

 

[bananiem]

My cousin "found" some numbers when he was working on his PhD back in the late 70's. I was in jr. high at the time and thought "whaddya mean he found a number? Wasn't it always just there?"

 

[Papa Deuce]

Ok, I am not a math kinda guy... but why is this important? I mean the number would be there whether they discovered it or not, right? And now that they have it, what will they do with it?

 

[dumboiu]

Ok, I am not a math kinda guy... but why is this important? I mean the number would be there whether they discovered it or not, right? And now that they have it, what will they do with it?

They will use it as a baseline to look for the next prime............DUH aw:

 

[RickinNYC]

They will use it as a baseline to look for the next prime............DUH aw:

Well now, don't I just feel dumberer.

 

[dumboiu]

Well now, don't I just feel dumberer.

aw:

 

[Papa Deuce]

They will use it as a baseline to look for the next prime............DUH aw:

and on and on it goes.... I'm betting there's tons more of prime numbers out there......... just waiting to be 'discovered".

 

[dumboiu]

and on and on it goes.... I'm betting there's tons more of prime numbers out there......... just waiting to be 'discovered".

Yep.........and I bet there will always be someone out there looking to *discover* them. Look at it this way, they will never be disappointed as there will always be *one more* to find. aw:

 

[mickeyfan2]

The number that the team found is 9.1 million digits long.

Could you please write this number out for me.

 

[Towncrier]

Ok, I am not a math kinda guy... but why is this important? I mean the number would be there whether they discovered it or not, right? And now that they have it, what will they do with it?

Please check out the following link for one answer to your question:
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/55922.html

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Wow, I am definitely not a math person!!!!!

 

[DisneyDotty]

Thanks for sharing--I just passed it on to my DH who's a math geek, too. This is better than you-know-what for him.

 

[zagafi]

And yet, I don't feel as if the course of my life has changed in anyway...but then again, I've always felt that way about math! LOL!