You all remember prime numbers, right? A prime number’s only factors are 1 and itself. Well, the above number is the largest prime number discovered yet - all told, it comes out to 17 million digits! It’s something mathematicians and math geeks are probably very excited about, but the rest of us may not see as much cause for celebration. The finding is momentous because finding larger prime numbers is a test of computing power and programming projects. Today, the most efficient way to search for prime numbers is to use the formula 2^n -1, where n is also a prime number. Even still, it took one computer 39 days to confirm that the latest discovery is indeed prime. Before you scoff, there’s money behind the prime madness - a foundation has already doled our prizes for the first 1m- and 10m-digit prime numbers, and $150,000 awaits the discoverer of the first 100m-digit prime number.
