News

Largest known prime number found

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, a cooperative computing project, helps find a prime that has nearly 13 million digits.

By Julie Rehmeyer

- More than 2 years ago

Editor’s note: This story was originally posted on Science News online as a Math Trek column September 20.

LARGEST KNOWN PRIME NUMBER. Printing out all 13 million digits in 12-point type would create a number 30 miles long. But here are a few of the digits, from the beginning and the end of the full number.