Today, people use complex computing networks to search for prime numbers with millions of digits. But early mathematicians were running these calculations by hand.

On Jan. 25, the largest known prime number, 2 57,885,161 -1, was discovered on Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) volunteer Curtis Cooper's computer. The new prime number, 2 multiplied ...

“A prime number is that which is measured by the unit alone,” mathematician Euclid wrote in 300 B.C. This means that prime numbers can’t be evenly divided by any smaller number except 1.

There’s a new largest known prime number in town, with a whopping 23,249,425 digits. The figure is calculated by multiplying 2 by itself 77,232,917 times and then subtracting 1.

It was a program that Pace had installed on one of the minister’s computers that was automatically assigned to check this specific prime number candidate, and after working for six days, it ...

The largest known prime number has been discovered by an amateur researcher and former Nvidia employee. The new number is 2 136,279,841 – 1, which beats the previous title holder (2 82,589,933 ...

Stamp issued in 2004 in Liechtenstein featuring a large prime number, 213466917-1. pascalgavillet.blog.tdg.ch, CC BY The new prime number discovered at the very end of 2017 corresponds to M77232917.