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Name: tim
Status: N/A
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Around 1995
Question:
What is the largest prime number?

Replies:
There is no largest prime number (Euclid, et. al.). Recently, (it seems this statement will always be proper as computers keep getting faster) another Mersenne prime has been discovered. A look-up of this will connect you to perfect numbers. Many references exist.

tee

I heard about the new largest-known prime on the news, but I have not seen anything about it in print, so I do not know how big it is. The previous record was the prime number 2^756839 - 1, a number of 227,832 digits. Our printer does about 5000 characters per page, so this works out to about 45 1/2 pages. The new record-holder is likely to be significantly bigger. A questioner on the Computer Science BB says that the new record-holder is the number 2^859433 - 1. This number would have 258,716 digits, requiring about 52 pages.

rcwinther


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