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 ...

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 ...

In 1998, Ask Ars was an early feature of the newly launched Ars Technica. Now, as then, it's all about your questions and our community's answers. We occasionally dig into our question bag, provide ...

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.