Mersenne prime
Revision as of 16:23, 1 July 2011 by Xantos C. Guin (talk | contribs) (Changed "The largest prime is ...." to "The largest known prime is ...." I'm fairly certain that 2^43112609-1 isn't the largest prime out there.)
A Mersenne prime is a prime that is in the form of 
.
These are some of the largest primes known to man due to one main factor: There is an integer bit value set to that, so that the largest number with a certain amount of bits is a form of
For example: The amount of numbers on a 32 bit computer is 
. Then, divide by 2, as there are positive, and negative values. Then subtract one, as zero is one of them, so the largest number on a 32 bit computer is 2,147,483,647. (Not necessarily the largest number displayed, to achieve a higher number, a computer could use a base system other than 2.)
The largest known prime is 
, and it is a Mersenne prime.
