December 01, 2024
Luke Durant, a former employee of American multinational technology company Nvidia, has found the largest known prime number in the world comprising 41,024,320 digits. This number named ‘M136279841’ was discovered through a project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS), which enables volunteers from different parts of the world to find the largest known prime numbers with the help of the project’s software. Durant’s discovery is considered significant as ‘M136279841’ is a Mersenne prime, a very rare type of prime number. These numbers are very challenging to find and the number discovered by Durant is only the 52nd such number.
Watch this video to learn more about Mersenne prime numbers
