A computer at the University of Central Missouri has discovered the world's longest prime number — and the number of numerals it contains is twice the count of the population of Australia. Named M74207281, the newly-christened prime number is comprised of 22 million individual digits in total (the shorthand version is 2^74,207,281-1).
The discovery is part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (Gimps), a project and organization founded in 1996 with the sole mission of uncovering Mersenne primes — numbers that cannot be divided by integers. Coincidentally, the numeric find occurred in conjunction with the organization's 20th anniversary.
So, how did Gimps do it? It used the computer-in-question to follow through with a seemingly simple calculation: multiplying the number two by itself and subtracting one. While this seems uncomplicated, it can get a bit out of hand when repeated for, say, the thousandth-plus time — which is why the org used a computer to keep track.
In the end, Gimps followed through with this formula 74,207,280 times, resulting in its mathematical treasure trove.
Via: BBC
Photo: r. nial bradshaw | Flickr
