Mathematicians have discovered the largest prime number ever identified - from 17 million digits.New record holder and his predecessor, was discovered in 2008, were both found with a vast network of computers called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS).
George Woltman, scientists are creating a network of GIMPS, said that the task of finding a new prime number is "analogous to climb Mount Everest."
Scientific American said: "People enjoy the challenge of discovery to find something that you've never known before."
The number was invented by a mathematician at the University of Central Missouri.
A different computer systems running on different hardware confirms that it is a prime number.
Prime numbers are numbers that can not be divided by any other number of self or one to produce a whole number.
This is the third Mersenne prime was discovered by the university, and 48 were never found.
Mersenne primes are named after their discoverer, the 17th century French mathematician Marin Mersenne.
They are expressed as, 2P-1 or P the two powers'' 'minus one. P itself is prime. For the new prime, P is 57,885,161.
The research team will be awarded $ 3,000 (£ 1,900) by GIMPS for discovery, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has offered a $ 150,000 (£ 95,000) for the 100-million-digit first meeting first.
Read More : http://news.sky.com/story/1048773/largest-prime-number-ever-identified
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