Mersenne numbers are named after Fr Mersenne, a 16th century Italian mathematician. What are Mersenne numbers? Mersenne numbers are named after Fr Mersenne, a 16th century Italian mathematician. They ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Prime numbers are those ...

After I first learned about prime numbers as a kidlet, I became quite fond of them -- a fondness that continues to this day, although I cannot explain why they are so appealing. But even amongst those ...

Prime numbers are quite extraordinary. They're like "special snowflakes" - unique in the way that they don't have any other positive divisors other than the number 1 and the prime number itself.

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has discovered the new largest known prime number, having 22,338,618 digits, on a university computer volunteered by Curtis Cooper for the project. The ...

Mersenne prime refers to a prime number among Mersenne numbers which is "a natural number less than 1 to the power of 2". According to GIMPS, the 50th Mersenne prime "M77232917" is 23,249,494 digits, ...

Update, Jan. 4, 2018: On Wednesday, the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search announced that a computer owned by Jonathan Pace in Germantown, Tennessee, discovered a new prime number. At 23,249,425 ...

Meet the new largest known prime number. It starts with a 4, continues on for 23 million digits, then ends with a 1. As is true with all prime numbers, it can only be evenly divided by one and itself.