It looks like one of the columns we wrote for the Times of India Group now needs updating.
A new number has now displaced the previous record holder for the largest known prime number. The number that now holds the record for the largest known prime is 17 million digits long, and is equal to the following : Mersenne(57885161). This is using the convention that Mersenne(X) represents the Mersenne prime 2^X - 1. In other words, it is equal to 2 ^ [57,885,161] minus 1.
A mathematician at the University of Central Missouri has discovered what is now the largest known prime number -- one with more than 17 million digits.
Dr. Curtis Cooper, who has made two other prime number discoveries, has found the 48th known Mersenne prime -- 257,885,161 minus 1. The number is 17,425,170 digits long.
Cooper discovered the number on Jan. 25, according to the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), a 16-year-old project that uses a grid of computers provided by volunteers to find large prime numbers.
If the number was typed out in standard Times Roman 12 point font, it would span more than 30 miles. It also would fill more than six Bibles.
