Saturday, March 21, 2009

Largest Prime & Number Names


The following image is from the page Known Mersenne Primes . Notice that if you go to that page you have the option to click on the word name of large primes. Do you know your place value beyond ones, tens, hundreds, millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillions?
How about:
quattuormilliamilliatrecensexviginmilliaunsexagintillion

Were the largest currently known prime (the one referred to in the bottom row of the image above) to be printed out it would BEGIN with:

316,470,269,330,255,923,143,453,723,949,337,516,054,106,188,475,264,644,140,304,
176,732,811,247,493,069,368,692,043,185,121,611,837,856,726,816,539,985,465,097,356,
123,432,645,179,673,853,590,577,238,179,357,900,876,426,103,943,782,376,494,591,742,
934,588,497,117,587,146,916,972,984,761,159,060,873,250,939,462,085,575,740,754,577,
098,620,558,011,779,529,884,042,198,287,643,319,330,465,064,455,234,988,142,139,565,
785,447,474,023,546,353,758,537,324,801,838,120,387,600,868,416,525,400,790,381,285,
888,256,687,085,855,456,231,577,527,939,305,920,811,766,585,308,670,132 . . .

. . . and would end with . . .

984,625,380,787,247,802,532,758,511,333,502,460,778,884,339,034,019,700,927,663,958,
167,698,908,010,736,101,410,136,996,852,925,703,272,553,544,622,464,685,928,707,526,
568,105,993,689,915,218,073,801,443,404,945,008,266,425,932,413,139,826,915,084,069,
991,159,279,791,908,398,130,223,304,824,083,119,093,195,998,014,562,456,347,941,202,
195,900,928,079,670,729,447,921,616,491,887,478,265,780,022,181,166,697,152,511

. . . with THOUSANDS of pages in between to write out the complete number. We are always on the lookout for new primes. We can prove that there are infinitely many primes - that we will never run out. This was proven by Euclid a LONG time ago, but large primes are very hard to find. If you want to join the hunt (with a possibility of big money for YOU while your computer does all the work), go to the Great International Mersenne Prime Search. The information on this page was taken from the Prime Page of Landon Curt Noll, pictured at right.

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