[ExI] 2^57885161-1

[Anders Sandberg]

On 08/02/2013 13:44, Dave Sill wrote:
> What's the mathematical importance of 2^257885161-1? Or Mersenne
> primes in general?

I think calling them collector's items isn't too far off the mark. 
However, the long search for them has led to a lot of useful things like 
methods of faster primality testing and factoring, arithmetic for very 
large numbers, and things like the Mersenne twister random number 
generators.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersenne_Twister

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University