Math Trek Math

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

Here’s a number to savor: 243,112,609-1.

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