LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Prime Numbers: Mersenne Primes
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The new prime number, discovered on June 1st, is one of a special class of prime numbers called Mersenne primes. This is only the 38th known Mersenne prime. Nayan used a 350 MHz Pentium II IBM Aptiva computer running part-time for 111 days to prove the number prime. Running uninterrupted it would take about three weeks to test the primality of this number. Richard Crandall, whose faster algorithms helped prove the number prime, has a poster that displays this huge number for sale at http://www.perfsci.com.
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Cameron's "Titanic" discovery has the further distinction of belonging to the subset of prime numbers known as Mersenne. A Mersenne prime takes the form 2p-1, where p is the number of times the original figure must be multiplied by itself. From the result you must then subtract 1. Therefore 7 equals 23-1, and as such, forms one of the only 39 Mersenne primes known to date.
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This prime number is the fourth record prime found by the GIMPS project. In recognition of every GIMPS contributor's effort and the invaluable services of Scott Kurowski's company, credit for this new discovery will go to "Hajratwala, Woltman, Kurowski, et al." In January 1998, Roland Clarkson discovered the previous largest known prime number. Gordon Spence discovered the 36th Mersenne prime in August, 1997. Joel Armengaud discovered the 35th Mersenne prime in November, 1996.
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At the time of the discovery, Cameron was taking part in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). A global project, GIMPS utilises distributed computing power, where subscribers make available the idle time on their PCs for some serious prime number crunching. Formed in 1996 by George Woltman, GIMPS is geared exclusively towards the discovery of these super primes and has had an enviable track record, unearthing the last 5 out of the 39 known Mersennes.
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Mersenne Primes