36 votes

New largest prime number found! 2¹³⁶²⁷⁹⁸⁴¹-1. See all 41,024,320 digits.

Posted by cfabbro
Tags: mathematics, numbers.prime, great internet mersenne prime search, mersenne prime, lucas lehmer primality test, fermat primality test, mathematical proof, george woltman, luke durant, history, computing.distributed, computing.cloud, nvidia, gpu, author.matt parker, videos, standup maths
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyGRDrDfbI

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Authors
Stand-up Maths
Duration
10:14
Published
Oct 21 2024

8 comments

  1. [2]
    Notcoffeetable
    Link
    I bet there’s a bigger one /s. Cool to see numbers on tildes. Cool to see a new mersenne prime!

    I bet there’s a bigger one /s.

    Cool to see numbers on tildes. Cool to see a new mersenne prime!

    19 votes
    1. slashtab
      Link Parent
      Yeah!! I was so happy to see it here. Couldn't contain my excitement.

      Cool to see numbers on tildes. Cool to see a new mersenne prime!

      Yeah!! I was so happy to see it here. Couldn't contain my excitement.

      4 votes
  2. [6]
    nothis
    Link
    Only asking this since it’s a video: as the headline suggests a single number being big news, how long does it currently take for new prime numbers to be discovered? Is it like a yearly event?

    Only asking this since it’s a video: as the headline suggests a single number being big news, how long does it currently take for new prime numbers to be discovered? Is it like a yearly event?

    10 votes
    1. [2]
      scherlock
      Link Parent
      Last one was 2018, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mersenne_primes_and_perfect_numbers

      Last one was 2018, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mersenne_primes_and_perfect_numbers

      17 votes
      1. Durinthal
        Link Parent
        Notably that list is for a specific kind of prime number (and that 2018 Mersenne prime was the largest prime number before this new one), but discovery of new primes in general is more common and...

        Notably that list is for a specific kind of prime number (and that 2018 Mersenne prime was the largest prime number before this new one), but discovery of new primes in general is more common and several others currently among the 20 largest known primes were found in the past year.

        8 votes
    2. [3]
      EmperorPenguin
      Link Parent
      Along with this being the first new prime in a while, the video explains it's also novel because of how it was calculated, using GPUs.

      Along with this being the first new prime in a while, the video explains it's also novel because of how it was calculated, using GPUs.

      12 votes
      1. pete_the_paper_boat
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Someone should make some kind of distributed compute system with rewards for crunching numbers like this ;) Edit; lol it actually is distributed compute with proof of work, makes sense for the...

        Someone should make some kind of distributed compute system with rewards for crunching numbers like this ;)

        Edit; lol it actually is distributed compute with proof of work, makes sense for the scale lol

        3 votes