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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.