When Was the Largest Prime Number Discovered? Details on the 2018 Mersenne Prime

Discover when the largest prime number was found: a Mersenne prime with over 24 million digits, discovered in December 2018.

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The largest prime number was found in December 2018. This colossal number, part of a special class known as Mersenne primes, is 2^82,589,933−1. It has 24,862,048 digits, showcasing the immense scale of prime numbers yet to be discovered.

FAQs & Answers

  1. What is the largest prime number ever found? The largest prime number discovered as of December 2018 is a Mersenne prime, specifically 2^82,589,933 − 1, containing 24,862,048 digits.
  2. What are Mersenne primes? Mersenne primes are prime numbers that can be expressed in the form 2^p − 1, where 'p' itself is a prime number.
  3. How are large prime numbers discovered? Large prime numbers are typically found using computational algorithms and distributed computing projects that test primality for numbers of special forms like Mersenne primes.