A new prime number, M77232917, with over 77 million digits, was discovered by electrical engineer John Pace through the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) project. Prime numbers have been used historically for encoding messages and are now used in computer encryption. Mersenne primes are found by continuously multiplying two together and subtracting one.
A prime number can only be divided equally by one or itself. For centuries, calculating prime numbers was a purely mathematical endeavor, but in the 19th century, especially during times of war, prime numbers were used to encode messages. Today they are mainly used in computer encryption. The most recent prime, discovered in December 19 by electrical engineer and math enthusiast John Pace of Germantown, Tennessee, is known as M2017 and has more than 77232917 million digits.
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19 and more:
M77232917 was discovered on Pace’s personal computer. He’s been looking for massive primes for 14 years.
Pace is a volunteer of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, or GIMPS for short, a project that began in 1996 and was named after the 17th-century French monk Marin Mersenne. Mersenne primes are found by continuously multiplying two together and then subtracting one.
The number is the 50th Mersenne prime to be discovered and the 16th to be found using GIMPS software. M77232917 is about a million digits longer than the last primary discovery, made in 2016.
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