Giant: Largest known prime number is over 22 million digits

Using one of the computers at his disposal at the University of Missouri Central, US researcher Curtis Cooper was able to calculate the largest prime number known today - a "small" monstrosity of more than 22 million digits. Named after M74207281, the finding was reported by the group of volunteer scholars known as the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), which specializes in the search for this type of numeral.

If you are wondering what such a massive prime number is for, know that this kind of numeric sequence is an important component of computer encryption systems. Exceeding the previous record by nearly 5 million digits, the news for now is considered “too big to have practical value today, ” but that should change with the natural advancement of computing technologies.

The M74207281 is part of a very rare class of numerals known as “Mersenne Cousins”. This type of prime number is found by multiplying the number 2 by itself an indeterminate number of times and finally subtracting a unit - which results in formula 2 ^p -1. In the case of the most recent discovery, the count to reach the prime of 22, 338, 618 digits was 2 ^74207281 -1.

Worth more than money

The discovery was made by Cooper after “31 uninterrupted days” of calculations made by one of the university's computers, which has nothing more than a 3.6 GHz Intel Core i7-4790 processor. During the process, the scholar received support of group volunteers, who analyzed several candidates to eliminate those who were not true prime numbers.

With the finding, the researcher can receive a research prize of US $ 3, 000 from GIMPS. The group's next goal is to find a Mersenne Cousin with more than 100 million digits, which could earn them a $ 150, 000 award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

To understand a little more about Mersenne's Prime numbers and the significance of the new world record, you can see above the explanatory video by mathematician Matt Parker. If you ever want to see more than 22 million digits in your own eyes, you can download the 21.7 MB .TXT file (zipped to 10.2 MB) by clicking here.

* A prime number is any natural numeral that can only be divided by itself and by 1.

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Via TecMundo.