Mersenne Primes
Nayan Hajratwala, George Woltman,
Scott Kurowski, et. al. found the largest Mersenne Prime ever! It is 
. It is believed to be the 38th Mersenne Prime. It was found
by a program by the Great
Internet Mersenne Prime Search.
My club, GIMPS, has the program, called Prime, or Prime 95, by George Woltman.
Visit the mailing list of Mersenne Primes. P. S. If you don't want a lot of e-mail DON'T click here. Yes. I'm a member of that, too.
From one year to the next, the largest prime number is usually a Mersenne
prime, because they are much easier to check. Mersenne primes, and Mersenne
numbers in general, were discovered by the French monk Marin Mersenne, who is
depicted in the picture above. There are two main ways to find these numbers:
one is to use a supercomputer, such as a Cray T3E. The other way is get a lot
of personal computers together. This is what George Woltman did. There are now
over 6000 participants in George's Mersenne club. David Slowinsky might never
find another Mersenne prime. George's club has found the last four: 
, 
, 
, and 
and has also
completed various other search goals, such as proving that M32, 33, 34, and 35
are the numbers we originally expected that they were, by testing all the ones
in between.
Why search for Mersenne primes? It is fun, it helps develop encryption
methods, and it is also just a use of those spare CPU cycles that it could use
while you are sleeping. Also, as Gordon Spence, the finder of 
, says, it is something you can tell your grandchildren:
"I remember the days when I was the world record holder."
CELEBRATE MERSENNE DAY EVERY DECEMBER 7TH!
Mersenne Pages
http://users.delta.com/mersenne/prime.txt
The Largest Known Prime by Year: A Brief History
Mersenne Primes: History, Theorems and Proofs
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
The Times: Britain: Calculation finds Briton in his prime
Science News Online - This Week - News Feature - 9/13/97
Science News Online - Ivars Peterson's MathLand - 12/14/96
Science News Online - Ivars Peterson's MathLand - 9/14/96