(2^20,996,011)-1 is prime
220,996,011-1 is prime
A new Mersenne prime has been found. These are numbers of the form 2p-1, where p is a prime number. Details here and here. My favorite quote is from the Fox story:
“People are going to make posters of it to hang up on the wall,” said Shafer, who is pursuing a doctorate in chemical engineering. “It’s a neat accomplishment, but it really doesn’t have any applicability.”
Of course, the question is now “Is 2(2^20,996,011)-1-1 prime? Is it even or odd?
Here’s 3 cheers for distributed computing! And to think, as of today, there’s only 7862 people in the RC5-72 race that have turned in more work than me.
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