USING COMPUTERS TO FIND PRIME NUMBERS
You may have come across Prime Numbers. They are numbers that have exactly 2 factors.
The first five prime numbers are 2 , 3 , 5 , 7, 11, ...
But have you ever wondered what the largest prime number might be? It may surprise you to learn that there is no largest prime number.
1 million people have joined the GIMPS project
It was proved by Greek Mathematicians over 2 000 years ago that there is no largest prime number. The proof is still considered as one of the most beautiful in all of mathematics.
Mathematicians are always hunting for a new largest known prime number.
The ‘Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search’ or ‘GIMPS.’ as it is known is a project which allows ordinary people to take part in the search for record breaking large prime numbers.
People who join the GIMPS project download software which allows their computer to join the search for huge prime numbers in it’s ‘spare time’.
The user's computer runs the software in the background. When it is joined with over 1,000,000 computers around the world, this produces a huge amount of computing power.
The lucky person whose computer is the first to find a Prime Number, with 100,000,000 digits will win $50 000 of a $150 000 prize (the GIMPS. organisers keep the rest).
Of course, you could just try to find the number by hand and keep the whole $150 000. You might get lucky but we would not recommend this approach!
The largest Prime Number currently known is:
IIt is a huge Mersenne Prime with nearly 25 million digits and was found by a member of the GIMPS project.
The search for large prime numbers is useful in internet security.
The RSA encryption algorithm which keeps much of our data safe online uses huge prime numbers to ensure that communications remain secure.
Marin Mersenne was a mathematician who devoted a lot of thought to Prime Numbers.
A special set of Prime Numbers are named Mersenne Primes in his honour.
They are prime numbers of the form
where n is a whole number.
51 Mersenne Primes have been found so far.
