[extropy-chat] 44th mersenne prime verified

[Anders Sandberg]

spike wrote:
> We just got word that the 44th known Mersenne prime has been verified
> today.
>
> This time the lucky exponent was 32582657.

Yay!

I remember finding Hans Riesel's book "On Primes" in the library as a kid.
Heavy number theory. But at one point a footnote said that the greatest
known mersenne prime is a certain number. Somebody had written the next
exponent under, followed by a third in a different handwriting. I soon
respectfully added the latest one. I'll see if I can update that book when
I'm passing by Sweden next time.

Hans held a Mersenne record for 14 days in the 50's, calculated using the
first Swedish computer. My old highschool computing teacher had worked as
a student on the system and had managed to crush his foot when a byte fell
out of its rack and onto him.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University