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not really, it is very hard to test any very large number for primality... this project only test numbers that satisfy the Mersenne prime definition though...
by zeep 9y ago
not really, it is very hard to test any very large number for primality... this project only test numbers that satisfy the Mersenne prime definition though... 9 of the 10 known largest primes are Mersenne prime numbers probably because there is more people testing these numbers.
http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html#biggest http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html#biggest
- schoen 9y agoBut the biggest reason that the largest known primes have this form is that they are subject to a much faster special-form primality test. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas%E2%80%93Lehmer_primality_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas%E2%80%93Lehmer_primality... There's no known general-form primality test that is nearly as fast for numbers of corresponding sizes.
- ehsankia 9y agoPeople test these because it's the easiest pattern we know of for constructing large primes. So if you want to maximize your chances of finding a large prime, you'll check for the mersenne form.
- mygo 9y agopeople test these because we have the technology to check if a large number of the Mersenne form is prime at a faster speed than numbers that do not conform.