[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Student Finds Largest Known Prime Number

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Student Finds Largest Known Prime Number
from Associated Press

DETROIT -- More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest
known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate
student Michael Shafer's off-the-shelf PC.

"It was just a matter of time," Shafer said.

The number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to
write out. It is more than 2 million digits larger than the previous
largest known prime number.

Shafer, 26, helped find the number as a volunteer on an eight-year-old
project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

full text:
http://snipurl.com/3d9t
_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion